172
11 Adaptive Capacity of EU Transboundary Water Governance …
the Commission is present only at a selected number of events. Even if present, it
hardly makes significant contribution to the deliberations.
2 This is in contrast with
the repeated invitation of Convention bodies to strengthen the cooperation between
the EU and the UNECE in the field of water policy (e.g. UNECE 2001). On the other
hand, none of the Convention bodies have any formal role in the formulation of EU
water policy and law, let alone its implementation. Consequently, the institutional
interaction between the relevant EU and UNECE bodies remains limited, with almost
no coordination whatsoever on their work programme, implementation experience,
etc. This is a serious shortcoming as the lack of overall synchronisation between
these two universally praised regimes leads to suboptimal practical outcomes on
either side: the EU fails to directly benefit from the dynamic and problem-oriented
work of the Convention bodies, whereas the Convention bodies cannot directly draw
on the wealth of experience accumulated by the Commission in the implementation of
decades of EU water law and policy. It must be pointed out, however, that there have
been a number of issue-specific areas—e.g. the implementation of the EU’s Water
Initiative
3 or the preparation of certain technical and expert documents
4 —where
the mutual benefits of cooperation have been successfully realised between the two
entities.
An additional critical segment of horizontal coordination is the interaction
between riparian states. As shown in Part II, EU member states are inter-linked
through an almost seamless web of multilateral and bilateral cooperation treaties
(Fig. 8.1) that create a framework for formal cooperation. Although, the level of
actual interaction very much depends on the scope and character of the given treaty
and the political willingness of the riparian states concerned, each EU member state
can expect and even enforce a certain degree of cooperation vis-à-vis its fellow basin
states. In the context of the first planning cycle of the WFD the experience of coriparian collaboration suggests that coordination between member states was often
inconsistent (Green et al. 2013).
11.3.2 Vertical Coordination
Vertical coordination among the various actors of transboundary water governance
seems more comprehensive. The UNECE maintains an intense and structured relationship with bodies operating at basin or bilateral level. Given that the establishment of “joint bodies” is a core obligation under the UNECE Water Convention, the
Convention bodies pay particular attention to the activity of the formal institutions
of co-riparian cooperation, e.g. by way of providing assistance to the their establishment, operation, promoting inter-RBO coordination, allowing participation in
2 The relevant meeting documents available at: https://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/
conventions/water/envwatermeetings.html#/ (accessed 12 February 2019).
3 https://www.unece.org/env/water/npd.html (accessed 12 February 2019).
4 http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=45241 (accessed 12 February 2019).
11 Adaptive Capacity of EU Transboundary Water Governance …
the Commission is present only at a selected number of events. Even if present, it
hardly makes significant contribution to the deliberations.
2 This is in contrast with
the repeated invitation of Convention bodies to strengthen the cooperation between
the EU and the UNECE in the field of water policy (e.g. UNECE 2001). On the other
hand, none of the Convention bodies have any formal role in the formulation of EU
water policy and law, let alone its implementation. Consequently, the institutional
interaction between the relevant EU and UNECE bodies remains limited, with almost
no coordination whatsoever on their work programme, implementation experience,
etc. This is a serious shortcoming as the lack of overall synchronisation between
these two universally praised regimes leads to suboptimal practical outcomes on
either side: the EU fails to directly benefit from the dynamic and problem-oriented
work of the Convention bodies, whereas the Convention bodies cannot directly draw
on the wealth of experience accumulated by the Commission in the implementation of
decades of EU water law and policy. It must be pointed out, however, that there have
been a number of issue-specific areas—e.g. the implementation of the EU’s Water
Initiative
3 or the preparation of certain technical and expert documents
4 —where
the mutual benefits of cooperation have been successfully realised between the two
entities.
An additional critical segment of horizontal coordination is the interaction
between riparian states. As shown in Part II, EU member states are inter-linked
through an almost seamless web of multilateral and bilateral cooperation treaties
(Fig. 8.1) that create a framework for formal cooperation. Although, the level of
actual interaction very much depends on the scope and character of the given treaty
and the political willingness of the riparian states concerned, each EU member state
can expect and even enforce a certain degree of cooperation vis-à-vis its fellow basin
states. In the context of the first planning cycle of the WFD the experience of coriparian collaboration suggests that coordination between member states was often
inconsistent (Green et al. 2013).
11.3.2 Vertical Coordination
Vertical coordination among the various actors of transboundary water governance
seems more comprehensive. The UNECE maintains an intense and structured relationship with bodies operating at basin or bilateral level. Given that the establishment of “joint bodies” is a core obligation under the UNECE Water Convention, the
Convention bodies pay particular attention to the activity of the formal institutions
of co-riparian cooperation, e.g. by way of providing assistance to the their establishment, operation, promoting inter-RBO coordination, allowing participation in
2 The relevant meeting documents available at: https://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/
conventions/water/envwatermeetings.html#/ (accessed 12 February 2019).
3 https://www.unece.org/env/water/npd.html (accessed 12 February 2019).
4 http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=45241 (accessed 12 February 2019).