1. Integrated River Basin Management & the Water Framework Directieve: The Holy Grail of border-crossing cooperation? Leo Santbergen Senior Policy Adviser/Outdoor PhD Brabantse Delta Water Management Authority

2. Content Definition of Integrated River Basin Management Short introduction to the Water Framework Directive Cross-border cooperation with the Flemish Region of Belgium Reflection

3. Integrated River Basin Management? Three Gorges Dam, China 1 2 Water in Utrecht 3 Education at Breda

4. Integrated River Basin Management: Aims at: a.Sustainability: Planet + People = Profit b.Equitable and reasonable use & prevention of significant harm to other riparian states By means of: 1.Envisioning the future & joint fact finding 2.Interactive policy making & active involvement of stakeholders 3.Cross-sector coordination and cooperation

5. Integrated River Basin Management: What happens in the real world? a)Different views, different interests: Ambiguous Ambitions b)Upstream-downstream asymmetries c)Differences in (political) cultures & planning traditions d)Absence of supranational authority: sovereignty and subsidiarity

6. Administrative boundaries Language boundary

7. Nature versus economy? Nitrate sensitive area Distribution of available water Flood risks

8. Water Framework Directive (1) 2009 2015 2027

9. The Water Framework Directive (2) River Basins Rijn Maas Schelde Eems

10. The Water Framework Directive (3): 1980s till October 2000: Delicate political drafting and negotiation process: ambiguous principles, objectives & requirements Huge step forward: harmonisation of European River Basin Management Strong trigger for internal integration Achilles Heels: cross-sector integration & multilateral coordination

11. My research: A hybrid analytical framework

12. Flemish – Dutch cooperation (1):

13. Flemish – Dutch Cooperation (2) Brabantse Delta Province of Antwerp

14. Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (3) : the issues Anticipation of floods & droughts Border-crossing pollution & accidents Fish migration Institutional differences Daily management & maintenance Socio-economic development of rural areas

15. Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (4): Example

16. Flemish –Dutch Cooperation (5): Example

17. Succes (f)actors & Challenges Success (f)actors: Invest in personal relations Acknowledge similarities and differences Focus on commons not on borders Participation in each others structures Joint experiments, excursions, workshops Challenges: Different political priorities and process stages Downstream state always asks more Linking bilateral with multilateral and European process

18. Reflection 1.New modes of European governance? Europe matters: without Europe political attention to water quality issues of former forerunner states would have been reduced significantly The Water Framework Directive does not fill in the supranational void at the multilateral level 2.Transboundary orientations and co-operation? Informal rules & networks of policy entrepreneurs No blueprint for success: upstream-downstream asymmetries remain dominant