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80UNIVERSITIES COUNCIL ON WATER RESOURCESJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATIONISSUE 135, PAGES 80-85, DECEMBER 2006Water Governance at the European UnionAna BarreiraInstituto Internacional de Derecho y Medio Ambiente, SpainIt has been recognized that the current watercrisis is a crisis of water governance (GlobalWater Partnership 2000). Resolving watergovernance problems will lead to the achievementof sustainable water resources management anddevelopment. Water governance refers to the rangeof political, social, economic, and administrativesystems that are in place to regulate thedevelopment and management of water resourcesand provision of water services at different levelsof society (Global Water Partnership 2002).Governance issues have important implicationsfor the management of water resources at alladministrative levels — global, regional, nationaland local — and good governance is a prerequisitefor the successful implementation of IntegratedWater Resources Management (IWRM), accordingto the Global Water Partnership (GWP) (2002).Water laws provide the framework for watergovernance systems and are the pillar for achievingeffective governance in a given country. Themain principles for effective water governanceare: openness and transparency, inclusion andcommunication, coherence and integration, equityand ethics. At the European Union (EU) level,the Water Framework Directive 1 (WFD) providesthe basic elements to contribute to effective watergovernance in European Union member states 2 .The main objective of this article is to present thewater governance system of the European Union,based primarily on the European CommunityWater Framework Directive. Firstly, it reviews theEuropean Union context, in particular EuropeanCommunity (EC) environmental law and policy.It follows with a brief analysis of the instrumentsshaping the European Community water lawarchitecture. In particular, it will emphasize theWater Framework Directive that, since its entry intoforce on December 22, 2000, represents the primarywater policy legislation in the European Union.Finally, some conclusions will be provided.The EU Context: European CommunityEnvironmental Law and PolicyThe European Community is a uniqueinternational organization. The European Courtof Justice (ECJ) already held in 1964 that “it hasits own institutions 3 , its own personality, its ownlegal capacity and capacity of representation onthe international plane and, more particularly, realpowers stemming from a limitation of sovereigntyor a transfer of powers from the States to theCommunity. The member states have limited theirsovereign rights, albeit within limited fields, andhave thus created a body of law which binds boththeir nationals and themselves.” 4 The EuropeanCommunity is the first pillar of what is known asthe European Union which also is also comprisedof two additional pillars: the Common Foreign andSecurity Policy and Cooperation in Justice andHome Affairs.Environmental policy, including water policy,is European Community policy whose implementationis shared between the European Unionand member states. This shared implementationimplies that the European Community establishesminimum standards for environmental protectionwhen it is necessary to intervene at the Europeanlevel 5 while leaving member states the freedom toestablish stricter protection measures 6 . Communitypolicy on the environment, including programsfor future legislation and action, has beenprogressively developed in six action programson the environment. Member states are obliged toUCOWRJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATION