Integrated River Basin Management & the Water Framework Directieve:

The Holy Grail of border-crossing cooperation?

Leo SantbergenSenior Policy Adviser/Outdoor PhD

Brabantse Delta Water Management Authority

Content

• Definition of Integrated River Basin Management

• Short introduction to the Water Framework Directive

• Cross-border cooperation with the Flemish Region of Belgium

• Reflection

Integrated River Basin Management?

Three Gorges Dam, China

1 2

Water in Utrecht

3

Education at Breda

Integrated River Basin Management:

Aims at:

a. Sustainability: Planet + People = Profit

b. Equitable and reasonable use & prevention of significant harm to other riparian states

By means of:1. Envisioning the future & joint fact finding

2. Interactive policy making & active involvement of stakeholders

3. Cross-sector coordination and cooperation

Integrated River Basin Management:

What happens in the real world?

a) Different views, different interests: Ambiguous Ambitions

b) Upstream-downstream asymmetries

c) Differences in (political) cultures & planning traditions

d) Absence of supranational authority: sovereignty and subsidiarity

Administrative boundaries

Language boundary

Nature versus economy?

Nitrate sensitive area

Distribution of available water

Flood risks

Water Framework Directive (1)

2009

20152027

The Water Framework Directive (2) River Basins

RijnMaas

Schelde

Eems

The Water Framework Directive (3):

• 1980s till October 2000: Delicate political drafting and negotiation process: ambiguous principles, objectives & requirements

• Huge step forward: harmonisation of European River Basin Management

• Strong trigger for internal integration

• Achilles Heels: cross-sector integration & multilateral coordination

My research: A hybrid analytical framework

Flemish – Dutch cooperation (1):

Flemish – Dutch Cooperation (2)

Brabantse Delta

Province of Antwerp

Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (3) : the issues

• Anticipation of floods & droughts

• Border-crossing pollution & accidents

• Fish migration

• Institutional differences

• Daily management & maintenance

• Socio-economic development of rural areas

Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (4): Example

Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (5): Example

Succes (f)actors & Challenges

Success (f)actors:

•Invest in personal relations•Acknowledge similarities and differences•Focus on commons not on borders•Participation in each others structures•Joint experiments, excursions, workshops

Challenges:

•Different political priorities and process stages•Downstream state always asks more•Linking bilateral with multilateral and European process

Reflection

1. New modes of European governance?• Europe matters: without Europe political attention to

water quality issues of former forerunner states would have been reduced significantly

• The Water Framework Directive does not fill in the supranational void at the multilateral level

2. Transboundary orientations and co-operation?• Informal rules & networks of policy entrepreneurs

• No blueprint for success: upstream-downstream asymmetries remain dominant