European Union Water Policy Research Articles

How EU policies could reduce nutrient pollution in European inland and coastal waters

Intensive agriculture and densely populated areas represent major sources of nutrient pollution for European inland and coastal waters, altering the aquatic ecosystems and affecting their capacity to provide ecosystem services and support economic activities. Ambitious water policies are in place in the European Union (EU) for protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems under the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This research quantified the current pressures of point and diffuse nitrogen and phosphorus emissions to European fresh and coastal waters (2005–2012), and analysed the effects of three policy scenarios of nutrient reduction: 1) the application of measures currently planned in the Rural Development Programmes and under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD); 2) the full implementation of the UWWTD and the absence of derogations in the Nitrates Directive; 3) high reduction of nutrient, using best technologies in wastewaters treatment and optimal fertilisation in agriculture. The results of the study show that for the period 2005–2012, the nitrogen load to European seas was 3.3–4.1 TgN/y and the phosphorus load was 0.26–0.30 TgP/y. Policy measures supporting technological improvements (third scenario) could decrease the nutrient export to the seas up to 14% for nitrogen and 20% for phosphorus, improving the ecological status of rivers and lakes, but widening the nutrient imbalance in coastal ecosystems (i.e. increasing nitrogen availability with respect to phosphorus), affecting eutrophication. Further nutrient reductions could be possible by a combination of measures especially in the agricultural sector. However, without tackling current agricultural production and consumption system, the reduction might not be sufficient for achieving the goals of EU water policy in some regions. The study analysed the expected changes and the source contribution in different European regional seas, and highlights the advantages of addressing the land-sea dynamics, checking the coherence of measures taken under different policies.

Paving the way for the optimization of water consumption in the steelmaking processes: barriers, analysis and KPIs definition

The efficient use of water resources is one of the main challenges of the steel sector, according to the European Union water policy. On this subject, monitoring and optimization systems, linked to the innovative water treatments, represent important tools to improve water management and the related energy use. The present paper describes a part of the work developed in the early stage of the project entitled “Water and related energy Hub Advanced Management system in steelworks – WHAM”, which is co-funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel. The project aims at optimizing water consumption in the steelworks through a holistic combination of on-line monitoring and optimisation and innovative water treatment technologies. As different aspects affect water use in the steelmaking processes, in the first part of the paper, the main technical barriers and factors, that can impact on reuse and recirculation of wastewater and energy efficiency, are analysed. The main constraints on water management in the steel sector, such as fresh water availability, its quality and local legal requirements, were considered in order to maximise the water reuse and recycling. Furthermore, the main barriers, such as environmental issues and several costs, were investigated. In the second part of the paper, a set of Key Performance Indicators are listed. They aim at assessing and monitoring the water management sustainability in a holistic way, both in terms of environmental and economic performances, as well as of new water treatments efficiency and their economic viability. Key Performance Indicators will be used to monitor the efficiency of water management, aiming at achieving significant increase of performances. On the other hand, some of these indicators will be used as objective functions for problems optimization. The computation of the selected Key Performance Indicators will take into account both industrial data and results from simulations that will be carried out after the development of suitable tools in order to assess the feasibility of some relevant process modifications or the applications of new technologies.

The Transition of EU Water Policy Towards the Water Framework Directive\u2019s Integrated River Basin Management Paradigm

Introduced in 2000 to reform and rationalise water policy and management across the European Union (EU) Member States (MS), the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the EU’s flagship legislation on water protection, is widely acknowledged as the embodiment and vessel for the application of the Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) paradigm. Its ecological objectives, perhaps even more challenging than the prospect of statutory catchment planning itself, were for all EU waters to achieve ‘good status’ by 2015 (except where exemptions applied) and the prevention of any further deterioration. In support of the upcoming WFD review in 2019, the paper reviews the transition of EU policies that led to the adoption of the WFD, to identify the reasons why the Directive was introduced and what it is trying to deliver, and to place progress with its implementation into context. It further investigates reasons that might have limited the effectiveness of the Directive and contributed to the limited delivery and delays in water quality improvements. Findings reveal that different interpretations on the Directive’s objectives and exemptions left unresolved since its negotiation, ambiguity and compromises observed by its Common Implementation Strategy and lack of real support for the policy shift required have all been barriers to the harmonised transposition of the IRBM paradigm, the key to delivering good ecological status. The 2019 WFD review offers a unique opportunity to realign the implementation of the Directive to its initial aspirations and goals.

European Union Water Policy in Aspect of Rural Areas Development

Abstract Agriculture and environment are among others the most important priorities of the European Union. Agriculture is strongly influenced by the state of the environment, including water resources. In addition to many other policies, the EU water policy is crucial for the sustainable development of rural areas. Directives are the main tools for implementation of water policy. This article contains an overview of the directives on aspects of quality and quantity of water resources. Within the paper three most important agricultural areas of the Directive are characterized: the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive and the Nitrates Directive. Presented mandatory EU action aimed at their implementation and the problems associated with it. Current proposals for changes in the EU water policy are described.

Is the EU Drinking Water Directive Standard for Pesticides in Drinking Water Consistent with the Precautionary Principle?

Regulations based on the precautionary principle should undertake a comprehensive assessment of all available scientific and technical data to identify sources of epistemic uncertainty. In the European Union (EU), environmental regulation is required to fulfill the principles established in Article 174 of the EU Treaty, such that it offers a high level of protection and is consistent with the precautionary principle. Pesticides in drinking water are currently regulated by the Drinking Water Directive using a maximum allowable concentration of 0.1 μg/L. This standard (a surrogate zero) was consistent with the precautionary principle when it was originally set in 1980 and remained consistent when retained in 1998. However, given developments in EU pesticide and water policy, international experience in regulating pesticides, and an increasing knowledge of pesticide toxicity, it can be argued that the level of epistemic uncertainty faced by regulators has substantially decreased. In this paper, we examine the extent to which such developments now challenge the basis of European drinking water standards for pesticides and whether, for substances for which there is good toxicological understanding, a regulatory approach based upon the World Health Organization (WHO) Guideline Value (GV) methodology would be more consistent with the principles underpinning European environmental policy.

Estimation of water requirements by livestock in Europe

Ecosystem-based thinking can be more easily incorporated into policy and decision making if natural resources are better accounted for. The Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water aims to positively contribute to the European Union's Water Policy through a series of studies to assess the quantity and quality of this precious resource. An important part of that water balance is the accounting of water removed from rivers or aquifers by different sectorial needs.The map series presented in this short note shows the water requirements for the livestock sector in particular. These maps are calculated based on livestock density maps for 2005, normalized by the best available field data at continental scale. Water requirements are calculated for cattle, pigs, poultry and sheep and goats. A relationship using air temperature is inferred for the daily water requirements per livestock category. Daily average temperature maps are used in conjunction with the livestock density maps in order to create a temporal series of water requirements for the livestock sector in Europe. This map series is then ingested by the hydrological model along with other water requirements maps for other sectors in order to contribute to the efforts to quantify total water use in the EU.

European Union Water Policy: Key Issues and Challenges

Water resources are among the most valuable resources of the natural environment. The sustainable and integrated management of these resources is the basis of European water policy. Pursuant to the Water Framework Directive, all waters in the European Union should achieve a state considered at least good by the year 2015. Just how this objective can be met continues to be a topic of discussions in some of the Member States. There exist serious problems and delays in performing and implementing the provisions of the Directive in most EU countries. What is more, the state of the water economy in several countries, including Poland, has been criticized by the European Commission. Many challenges stand before European water policy. They require solutions on a global and local level. This article presents current key problems and planned directions for EU water policy development, subjected to analysis and assessment. Note is taken on the newest initiative of the European Commission in the area of water policy, especially the plan for protecting Europe’s water resources—the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources.

A policy development perspective on drinking water policy

This paper seeks to address the lack of knowledge in the water industry of how policy development can be understood to have shaped the development and application of European Union (EU) drinking water policy. In particular, the paper develops a comparative understanding of how policy development can be viewed as having affected the development and application of the Drinking Water Directive (80/778/EEC) in England/Wales and the Republic of Ireland. As a result of this focus, the paper explores policy development issues relating to conflicting interests, invalid causal theories, political symbolism, lack of attention to detail by policy makers, and the allocation of duties and resources. It is subsequently established that consideration of these issues is useful in fostering a focused understanding of how policy development may have affected policy application. Despite the significant changes which took place with regard to the development of the current Drinking Water Directive (98/883/EC), the paper concludes by arguing that greater attention should be accorded the conflicting interests and abilities of Member States during the development of EU water policy, particularly if attempts are to be made to identify measures targeted at improving the application of EU water policy in a diverse political and economic union of member states.

The impact of politics on the application of the Drinking Water Directive (80/778/EEC)

This paper seeks to address a growing lack of historical knowledge in the water industry of how European Union (EU) water policy has developed and been responded to. It also aims to overcome the lack of comparative studies that explore the role politics has played in the development and application of EU water policy. As a result, this paper develops a historical comparative understanding of how England and Wales and the Republic of Ireland have responded to the Drinking Water Directive (80/778/EEC). It does so from the perspectives of political priority and ideology. Political ideology is shown to have had a greater impact on facilitating the achievement of the Directive's standards in England and Wales. However, it is established that the political priority national governments have accorded compliance has been central to ensuring the application and enforcement of the Directive's standards. Despite the apparent success of political ideology in England and Wales, the paper sounds a note of caution with regard to judging privatisation as being uniformly successful, for it has not, particularly if issues of water charges, customer debt and financial and reporting irregularities are considered.

Sediment quality assessment and dredged material management in Spain: Part I, application of sediment quality guidelines in the bay of Santander

Sediments are an essential component of aquatic ecosystems that must be assessed and managed properly. The use of quantitative environmental quality standards derived from consideration of sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) can be effective as part of a tiered risk assessment approach. In Part I of this 2-part paper addressing sediment quality assessment and dredged material management in Spain, different SQG methods are used to evaluate sediment quality in the Bay of Santander, located in the Cantabric Sea along the northern coast of Spain, and to guide development of empirically derived SQGs for marine sediments. The results of the study indicate a great heterogeneity of SQGs, both with regard to the numeric values for a particular chemical and the number of substances for which SQGs have been derived. The analysis highlights the scarce development of empirical SQGs for priority substances identified in current European Union water policy. Nonetheless, the application of SQGs makes it possible to classify different zones of sediment quality in the Bay of Santander. Part II of this 2-part paper considers the environmental impacts of dredged material disposal. Legislation and criteria used to regulate dredged material disposal at sea in different European countries are reviewed, and action levels derived by different countries were used to evaluate management of dredged sediments from Cádiz Bay, located on the South Atlantic coast of Spain.

Sediment quality assessment and dredged material management in Spain: Part II, analysis of action levels for dredged material management and application to the bay of Cádiz

When sediments are removed from aquatic bottoms, they turn into dredged material that must be managed, taking into account its environmental impact. In Part II of this 2-part paper addressing sediment quality assessment and dredged material management in Spain, legislation and criteria used to regulate dredged material disposal at sea in different European countries are reviewed, as are action levels (ALs) derived by different countries used to evaluate management of dredged sediments from Cádiz Bay located on the South Atlantic coast of Spain. Comparison of ALs established for dredged material disposal by different countries reveals orders of magnitude differences in the values established for the same chemical. In Part I of this 2-part paper, review of different sediment quality guideline (SQG) methods used to support sediment quality assessments indicated a great heterogeneity of SQGs, both with regard to the numeric values for a particular chemical and the number of substances for which SQGs have been derived. The analysis highlighted the absence of SQGs for priority substances identified in current European Union water policy. Here, in Part II, the ALs are applied to dredged sediments from Cádiz Bay (South Atlantic coast of Spain), evidencing that the heterogeneity of ALs implemented in the reviewed countries could determine different management strategies. The application of other measurements such as bioassays might offer information useful in identifying a cost-effective management option in a decision-making framework, especially for dredged material with intermediate chemical concentrations.

Diverging water management paradigms between Turkey and the European union

: Since the early 1990s, the integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach has been championed and adopted by some of the industrialized states. The present paper analyzes the IWRM approach through an historical narrative while emphasizing divergences in the priorities and requirements of the developing and developed countries. Then, the paper examines water resources management in Turkey taking into consideration the political and economic structure of the country. Turkey, being the accession country to the European Union (EU), has undertaken various obligations in the adaptation process required for EU membership. Hence, the paper looks into the making of the EU water policy since the 1970s with particular attention to the Water Framework Directive (WFD), its basic objectives and rules, as well as the compatibilities and differences of it with the Turkish water policy.

European Union Water Policy—Tasks for Implementing “Water Framework Directive” in Pre-accession Countries

Water Framework Directive aiming to maintain and improve the aquatic environment in the EU was launched by the European Parliament in 2000. According to this directive, control of quantity is an ancillary element in securing good water quality and therefore measures on quantity, serving the objective of ensuring good quality should also be established. Accordingly, it is a comprehensive and coordinated package that will ensure all European waters to be protected according to a common standard. Therefore, it refers to all other Directives related to water resources management such as Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive Nitrates Directive, Drinking Water Directive, Integrated Pollution Prevention Control etc. Turkey, as a candidate state targeting full-membership, should comply the necessary preparations for the implementation of the “Water Framework Directive” as soon as possible. In this study, the necessary legislative, political, institutional, and technical attempts of the pre-accession countries have been discussed and effective recommendations have been offered for future activities in Turkey.

Lake management in Italy: the implications of the Water Framework Directive

AbstractThis paper constitutes the first consideration of the implications of the lake management in Italy arising from the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), in comparison to the provisions of existing national legislation. As a matter of fact, the Italian decrees anticipated the principles of the WFD and have substantially modified the legislation in the field of water in Italy. Important changes were introduced, both in the monitoring systems and in the classification methods for surface waters. The environmental quality status will be determined not only by monitoring the aqueous matrix, but also the sediment and the biota. The new WFD is the major piece of European Union (EU) legislation with environment at its core; it will guide the efforts for attaining a sustainable aquatic environment in the years to come. In the WFD one can see elements from all the different forces that guided the reform of EU water policy: environmental protection, deregulation and subsidiarity. Moreover, elements of the economic instruments approach (introduction of the cost recovery principle), quantitative concerns (setting of minimum flow objectives for rivers and abstraction limits for ground waters) and the quest for integration (river basin management with representation of all stakeholders) are all reflected in the WFD. The paper summarizes the present condition of the most important lakes in the Italian lake district and also highlights the case of Lake Varese, representing a unique case of lake management in Italy. Preliminary results show that there are very few examples dealing with the elements thought appropriate to lake water assessment as required by the WFD. The application of the objectives of the type specified is a largely unknown issue.

EU water policy: Uncertain agendas, shifting networks and complex coalitions

European Union (EU) water legislation is now very extensive in scope and has major cost implications for the member states, for the water industry, and for consumers. Although participation in the policy formulation process was fairly narrowly based in the early development of this programme of legislation, more recently participation has become more extended. The EU water policy process is an example of a rather loose and more open issue network or constellation of actors, rather than a closed and restricted policy community. It is, however, possible to identify a core of central actors within this loose configuration. Even so, the agenda setting process remains unpredictable and issues are processed via the interaction of a series of advocacy coalitions which link epistemic communities of scientists (especially toxicologists) into a wider and more visible political world. Because of the high salience of water policy throughout the Union, issue expansion, rather than issue contraction, is likely to remain the norm. The end result may be rather ‘garbage can’ in its characteristics ‐ namely ‘organised anarchies characterised by problematic preferences, unclear technology and fluid participation’.