8.2 International Water Law in the European Union
83
Today, EU countries and their neighbours are interconnected by an extensive web
of multi- and bilateral treaties. On top of European system of international water law
sits the UNECE Water Convention. This is supplemented by basin treaties, sub-basin
treaties, comprehensive bilateral water treaties, as well as bilateral treaties covering
single transboundary water bodies or particular issues. As Fig. 8.1 show these add up
to an almost seamless treaty coverage of all international river basins situated within
or shared by the EU.
8.2.2 The UNECE Water Convention
8.2.2.1 History
The overarching institutional framework for pan-European transboundary water
cooperation has been created by the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the UN’s regional body. Importantly, the UNECE region is not
limited to the European continent as it also includes countries that emerged from the
disintegration of the Soviet Union as well as the United States and Canada. Today,
the UNECE has 56 member states.
12
The UNECE has been active in the field of environmental policy since the 1960s.
The current overarching political framework, the Environment for Europe process
was launched in 1991 following the collapse of communism in central and eastern
Europe. This process paved the way for the adoption of a range of landmark environmental conventions throughout the 1990s, such the 1991 (Espoo) Convention on
Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, the 1992 (Helsinki)
Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, the 1998 (Aarhus)
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and
Access to Justice on Environmental Matters
13 or, indeed, the UNECE Water Convention itself. The UNECE started to address selected water related problems as early
as in the 1950s. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s it adopted a large number
of recommendations, declarations and decisions addressing a range of water-related
questions such as drinking water abstraction, water pollution, economic instruments
of water governance, etc. As Alistair Rieu-Clarke, a monographer of UNECE water
law, concludes this early body of non-binding instruments reflects “an evolution and
consolidation of shared understanding […] on transboundary water challenges” that
12 https://www.unece.org/oes/nutshell/member_states_representatives.html (accessed 12 February
2019).
13 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo, 25 February 1991 (Espoo Convention); the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents,
Helsinki, 17 March 1992; Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, 25 June 1998 (Aarhus Convention)
and the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to the Convention on Environmental
Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Kiev, 21 May 2003 (Kiev Protocol).
83
Today, EU countries and their neighbours are interconnected by an extensive web
of multi- and bilateral treaties. On top of European system of international water law
sits the UNECE Water Convention. This is supplemented by basin treaties, sub-basin
treaties, comprehensive bilateral water treaties, as well as bilateral treaties covering
single transboundary water bodies or particular issues. As Fig. 8.1 show these add up
to an almost seamless treaty coverage of all international river basins situated within
or shared by the EU.
8.2.2 The UNECE Water Convention
8.2.2.1 History
The overarching institutional framework for pan-European transboundary water
cooperation has been created by the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the UN’s regional body. Importantly, the UNECE region is not
limited to the European continent as it also includes countries that emerged from the
disintegration of the Soviet Union as well as the United States and Canada. Today,
the UNECE has 56 member states.
12
The UNECE has been active in the field of environmental policy since the 1960s.
The current overarching political framework, the Environment for Europe process
was launched in 1991 following the collapse of communism in central and eastern
Europe. This process paved the way for the adoption of a range of landmark environmental conventions throughout the 1990s, such the 1991 (Espoo) Convention on
Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, the 1992 (Helsinki)
Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, the 1998 (Aarhus)
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and
Access to Justice on Environmental Matters
13 or, indeed, the UNECE Water Convention itself. The UNECE started to address selected water related problems as early
as in the 1950s. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s it adopted a large number
of recommendations, declarations and decisions addressing a range of water-related
questions such as drinking water abstraction, water pollution, economic instruments
of water governance, etc. As Alistair Rieu-Clarke, a monographer of UNECE water
law, concludes this early body of non-binding instruments reflects “an evolution and
consolidation of shared understanding […] on transboundary water challenges” that
12 https://www.unece.org/oes/nutshell/member_states_representatives.html (accessed 12 February
2019).
13 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo, 25 February 1991 (Espoo Convention); the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents,
Helsinki, 17 March 1992; Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, 25 June 1998 (Aarhus Convention)
and the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to the Convention on Environmental
Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Kiev, 21 May 2003 (Kiev Protocol).