How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive
Realising the goals of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is difficult. The differentiation of water policies according to local conditions enjoys increasing attention and may be necessary to achieve good ecological status in all European waters. This paper seeks to explore to what ex...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IWA Publishing
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Water Policy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://wp.iwaponline.com/content/23/4/1000 |
| _version_ | 1818420784060694528 |
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| author | Duncan Liefferink Morten Graversgaard Helle Ørsted Nielsen Daan Boezeman Ann Crabbé Mark Wiering Maria Kaufmann |
| author_facet | Duncan Liefferink Morten Graversgaard Helle Ørsted Nielsen Daan Boezeman Ann Crabbé Mark Wiering Maria Kaufmann |
| author_sort | Duncan Liefferink |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Realising the goals of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is difficult. The differentiation of water policies according to local conditions enjoys increasing attention and may be necessary to achieve good ecological status in all European waters. This paper seeks to explore to what extent and how local water quality determines the degree of coercion, i.e. the extent to which differentiated policies are voluntary or rather imposed upon policy addressees, of spatially differentiated water policies. It does so on the basis of seven cases in five EU Member States. For highly polluted waters, spatially differentiated policies tend either to make the use of authoritative policy instruments, i.e. coercion by way of formal regulation, or to rely on the threat to introduce such regulation. For preventing the deterioration of relatively ‘clean’ waters, voluntary instruments based on information and persuasion dominate, often supported by subsidies and/or the direct input of public resources. In relation to the spatial differentiation of water policies, issues of data demand, equality and legitimacy have to be taken into account. HIGHLIGHTS
The paper explores the relationship between local water quality and policy instruments used for locally differentiated policies under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).;
In case of a long distance to the WFD targets, instruments with a high degree of coercion, e.g. formal regulation, prevail.;
If local quality is close to the WFD targets, lower degrees of coercion, e.g. information or subsidies, prevail.; |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:59:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-880b57a206654b6eb9ee7e070b11f0de |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1366-7017 1996-9759 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:59:58Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | IWA Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water Policy |
| spelling | doaj.art-880b57a206654b6eb9ee7e070b11f0de2022-12-21T23:00:28ZengIWA PublishingWater Policy1366-70171996-97592021-08-012341000101610.2166/wp.2021.024024How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework DirectiveDuncan Liefferink0Morten Graversgaard1Helle Ørsted Nielsen2Daan Boezeman3Ann Crabbé4Mark Wiering5Maria Kaufmann6 Institute for Management Research, Environmental Governance and Politics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9108, NL-6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, P.O. Box 30314, NL-2500 GH Den Haag, The Netherlands Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, University of Antwerp, Sint-Jacobstraat 2, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium Institute for Management Research, Environmental Governance and Politics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9108, NL-6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands Institute for Management Research, Environmental Governance and Politics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9108, NL-6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands Realising the goals of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is difficult. The differentiation of water policies according to local conditions enjoys increasing attention and may be necessary to achieve good ecological status in all European waters. This paper seeks to explore to what extent and how local water quality determines the degree of coercion, i.e. the extent to which differentiated policies are voluntary or rather imposed upon policy addressees, of spatially differentiated water policies. It does so on the basis of seven cases in five EU Member States. For highly polluted waters, spatially differentiated policies tend either to make the use of authoritative policy instruments, i.e. coercion by way of formal regulation, or to rely on the threat to introduce such regulation. For preventing the deterioration of relatively ‘clean’ waters, voluntary instruments based on information and persuasion dominate, often supported by subsidies and/or the direct input of public resources. In relation to the spatial differentiation of water policies, issues of data demand, equality and legitimacy have to be taken into account. HIGHLIGHTS The paper explores the relationship between local water quality and policy instruments used for locally differentiated policies under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).; In case of a long distance to the WFD targets, instruments with a high degree of coercion, e.g. formal regulation, prevail.; If local quality is close to the WFD targets, lower degrees of coercion, e.g. information or subsidies, prevail.;http://wp.iwaponline.com/content/23/4/1000eu member statesimplementationpolicy instrumentsspatial differentiationwater framework directivewater policy |
| spellingShingle | Duncan Liefferink Morten Graversgaard Helle Ørsted Nielsen Daan Boezeman Ann Crabbé Mark Wiering Maria Kaufmann How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive Water Policy eu member states implementation policy instruments spatial differentiation water framework directive water policy |
| title | How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive |
| title_full | How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive |
| title_fullStr | How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive |
| title_short | How Hercules cleans up the Augean stables: differentiated implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive |
| title_sort | how hercules cleans up the augean stables differentiated implementation of the eu water framework directive |
| topic | eu member states implementation policy instruments spatial differentiation water framework directive water policy |
| url | http://wp.iwaponline.com/content/23/4/1000 |
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