Variations on the same theme: Environmental objectives of the Water Framework Directive in environmental permitting in the Nordic countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209
Author(s):  
Sara Kymenvaara ◽  
Lasse Baaner ◽  
Helle Tegner Anker ◽  
Laura Leino ◽  
Antti Belinskij
Keyword(s):  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Environmental Permitting

scholarly journals Law and Politics in River Basin Management: The Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in The Netherlands

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3367
Author(s):  
Erik Mostert
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
Binding Effect ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Environmental Objectives

This article discusses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the Netherlands and shows how law and politics combine in river basin management. Initially, the implementation of the WFD in the Netherlands was approached as a technical and administrative issue, handled by water quality and ecology experts, but, in 2003, this approach was broken open by the agricultural sector, who feared stricter regulation. Subsequently, the environmental objectives of the WFD were set as low as possible and they play no role when authorising new projects. In July 2015, however, the European Court of Justice determined that the environmental objectives have a binding effect and that Member States have to refuse authorisation of projects that jeopardise the achievement of these objectives. This example shows the important role that law as a social phenomenon or “field” can play in river basin management, provided the courts enjoy sufficient social and political support and function relatively independently, as they do in the Netherlands. The article discusses the origin of the juridical field and its relation with politics and concludes that, to understand river basin management fully, it is essential to understand how (water) law functions.

Water-Related Tools for Climate Change Adaptation in the Flemish Region: The Art of Linking Water Quality Standards to Spatial Planning

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-301
Author(s):  
Peter De Smedt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Water Quality Standards ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) establishes a framework for integrated water management and functions as a major legal frame for the protection of water bodies in Europe. In the Flemish Region the Directive has been implemented by the Decree of 18 July 2003 on Integral Water Policy. As climate change affects the quality and quantity status of water bodies, the question arises whether the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Flemish implementation legislation are well-suited to handle climate change impacts. Although climate change concerns are not explicitly incorporated in the text of the WFD and the Flemish Decree, this author believes that the main components for an effective adaptation strategy are included in the above mentioned legislation. More in particular, this is achieved by the environmental objectives which have to be elaborated in environmental quality standards (EQS) on the one hand, and the integrated approach on the other hand. Water quality management on the basis of a high level of protection of the aquatic environment is indispensable for adapting to climate change, as ecosystem-based adaptation is most cost-effective. Therefore spatial planning should integrate water quality concerns, as spatial planning may be critical for spatial quality and more specific for the achievement of the environmental objectives. Consequently this contribution focuses on the impact of water quality standards on permit decision-making and spatial planning. In this context some legal instruments anchored in the Flemish legislation on integral water policy will be highlighted, especially the 'watertoets' (translated as the water checkup), which may be useful to facilitate adaptation to climate change.

scholarly journals Before and After the Weser Case: Legal Application of the Water Framework Directive Environmental Objectives in Sweden

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Söderasp ◽  
Maria Pettersson
Keyword(s):  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Governance System ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Judicial Implementation ◽  
High Level

Abstract The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) prescribes environmental objectives and an adaptive water governance system. This article analyses the Swedish implementation of the WFD through a review of high-profile Swedish court cases regarding the application of the WFD environmental objectives in individual authorisation processes for water operations. The selection of court cases represents both the time before and after the Court of Justice of the European Union’s Weser case in 2015. The results indicate an inertial tendency in the legal application of the WFD environmental objectives in Swedish courts, including a reluctance to fully apply EU law as interpreted by the CJEU. The overall conclusion is that traditional legal certainty aspects often trump flexibility and a high level of environmental protection as desired in the adaptive water governance system of the WFD. This raises questions about judicial preconceptions and the procedural autonomy of the Member States vis-à-vis the ‘effet utile’ of EU law through judicial implementation.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of the Principle of Recovery of the Costs of Water Services Jeopardized by the European Court of Justice – Annotations on the Judgment in C-525/12

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.E. Lindhout ◽  
H.F.M.W. van Rijswick
Keyword(s):  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Cost Recovery ◽  
European Court Of Justice ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Member States ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Cost

In Case C-525/12 the European Court of Justice concludes that cost recovery for water services as outlined in Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive is only one of the instruments for Member States to strive for a rational water use. It furthermore concludes that the wfd environmental objectives not necessarily imply that cost recovery should be applicable to all water-related activities mentioned in Article 2 (38) wfd. In this underlying contribution a number of critical remarks to this judgment are provided. In view of the authors, the European Court of Justice reduces the effectivity of the cost recovery principle too rigorously by reducing the principle of cost recovery for water services to a practically voluntary tool for Member States.

scholarly journals Law and Politics in River Basin Management; The Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Mostert
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
River Basin ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
European Court Of Justice ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
European Court

This article discusses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the Netherlands and intends to show how law and politics combine in river basin management. Initially, the implementation of the WFD in the Netherlands was approached as a technical and administrative issue, handled by water quality and ecology experts, but in 2003 this approach was broken open by the agricultural sector, who were worried about stricter regulation. Subsequently, the environmental objectives of the WFD were set as low as possible and they are not used in authorising individual projects. Yet, in 2015 of the European Court of Justice determined that the environmental objectives have binding effect and that Member States have to refuse authorisation for projects that endanger the achievement of these objectives. In the future, the European Court of Justice and national courts may force the Dutch government to change its approach. They may only do so because and as long as they enjoy sufficient social and political support and function relatively independently. The article concludes that, to understand river basin management fully, one has to open up the black box of water law and become a kind of water lawyer.

scholarly journals From science to practice in implementing the European Union’s Water Framework Directive

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 81-84
Author(s):  
Lisbeth Flindt Jørgensen ◽  
Jens Christian Refsgaard ◽  
Anker Lajer Højberg
Keyword(s):  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
Energy Environment

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union aims to achieve a ‘good’ status for all inland and coastal waters by the year 2015 (EC 2000). The directive defines how this should be achieved through the establishment of environmental objectives and ecological targets. Successful implementation of the WFD requires integration into already existing national legislation and a sound combination of issues on technical feasibility, scientific knowledge and socio-economic aspects requiring intensive stakeholder involvement. This calls for appropriate tools such as models to support management of technical and social aspects of different phases of the implementation (Rekolainen et al. 2003; Quevauviller et al. 2005). It is therefore necessary to provide an overview of already existing methods and tools and develop new ones. Research programmes funded by the European Commission (EC) often address issues of current interest for practitioners, such as the Fifth Framework Programme, where a number of research projects to support the practical implementation of the WFD were initiated under the theme ‘Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development’. The funding part (the Directorate-General for Research, DG Research) and the responsible authority for the WFD at European level (Directorate-General of Environ ment) saw the need to cluster these research projects and related activities, and initiated the Harmoni-CA project, a socalled ‘Concerted Action’ (i.e. Harmonised Modelling Tools for Integrated River Basin Management). The objectives of this paper are (a) to briefly describe the overall purpose of the Harmoni-CA project and some of its overarching outputs, and (b) to further illustrate how the implementation of the WFD can be enhanced by combining monitoring and modelling disciplines and by bringing practitioners and researchers together.

Setting the threshold: An analysis of different approaches for the definition of exemptions to water quality objectives in the European Union

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Bolinches ◽  
Lucia De Stefano ◽  
Javier Paredes-Arquiola ◽  
Carlotta Valerio ◽  
Alberto Garrido
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
European Union ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Member States ◽  
Environmental Objectives

<p>Continental water ecosystems and human water uses may be jeopardized by degradation of water quality.  To prevent this degradation, the maximum concentration of pollutants for freshwater bodies may need to be set in the legislation. In some cases, the actions needed to achieve those environmental objectives may be technically challenging or financially overburdening. In the case of the European Union (EU), the Water Framework Directive (WFD, Article 4) requires the achievement of the good status of water bodies but allows for the declaration of exemptions due to lack of technical feasibility or disproportionate costs. Twenty years after the WFD approval, the conditions to declare exemptions remain unclear and in practice their declaration  is highly discretional.</p><p>The extant scientific literature suggests several methods to formulate the justification of exemptions. Although the methodologies are diverse, they all require to select a threshold (e.g. in terms of cost disproportionality) above which a relaxation of the environmental objectives may be accepted. This threshold should be uniform across the EU River Basin Districts in order to guarantee a fair distribution of efforts across Member States. To date, however, there are very few studies that compare the application of exemptions in different regions to assess the uniformity of approaches to the declaration of exceptions.</p><p>When defining actions to achieve the good status of water bodies, the quantification of the different pressures, their interactions and the effects on receiving water bodies can be challenging. In the case of physico-chemical pollutants, however, it can be easier to define policy actions as pressures can be quantified (point loads of wastewater treatment plants, diffuse loads emanated by different land uses) and the evolution in receiving waters can be modelled.</p><p>In our research, we analyzed over one thousand water bodies in the River Basin Districts of five different Member States of the European Union (Estonia, a transboundary Ireland-United Kingdom basin, Italy, Spain and Portugal), using the available databases on Digital Elevation Models (Copernicus EU-DEM), land use (CORINE land cover), urban pressures (European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive dissemination platform and reported data), runoff and gauged flows (Water Information System for Europe, national gauging networks) and WFD exemption databases. Each water body was characterized according to the level of nitrogen and phosphorus pressures deriving from point and diffuse loads, and the declaration of exemptions to the environmental objectives for those nutrients. The exemption threshold is assessed for each River Basin District, allowing for a critical review of the different water policies in this significant aspect of the Water Framework Directive implementation.</p>

The Programme of Measures of the Water Framework Directive – More than just a Formal Compliance Tool

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Baaner
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Member States ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Environmental Objectives

AbstractThis article explores the requirements of the Water Framework Directive with regard to the programme of measures for achieving environmental objectives. It analyses Article 11 of the directive and other legal provisions concerning the content of the programme, and identifies four kind of provisions: provisions for including measures for achieving environmental objectives, provisions for including measures for fulfilling other obligations in the Water Framework Directive, provisions for including measures for fulfilling obligations in other environmental directives, and provisions concerning the legal design of the Member States' water management. This article concludes that a number of the provisions in Article 11 direct the legal design of the Member States' water management in greater detail than that which follows from the obligation to achieve the environmental objectives of Article 4 of the directive, and that the freedom to decide on how to attain the environmental objectives of the directive is limited thereby.

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