1. LESSONS FROM THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL WADDEN SEA CONFERENCE European water framework directive & coastal waters, Leeuwarden, May 2004 Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council Paul Scholte, Wadden Sea Council

2. WADDEN SEA, a NW European coastal area • At the “downstream end” of the Water Framework Directive • At the “start” of the Marine Strategy

3. Experiences with the start of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive • The Netherlands is lagging behind other European countries • The Netherlands, as sinkhole of the Rhine, has much to gain from the WFD

4. STRENGHTS of WFD • Clearly defined Time Targets (2015, 2027), explaining the recent attention for the WFD in the Netherlands • River Basin approach, linking the Wadden Sea with its upstream river basins, source of pollution

5. WEAKNESSES of WFD • Fragmentation of the Wadden Sea by the applied river basin approach (6 in the Wadden Sea, in the Netherlands as different as the Rhine and Ems Basins) • Top-down approach, public involvement in implementation phase only

6. OPPORTUNITIES of WFD • Opportunities of WFD have received generally little attention • Yet genuine opportunity to improve the quality of European Water Bodies

7. THREATS of WFD • Monitoring, may become cumbersome and expensive • Poorly developed public participation (yet in the German part of Wadden Sea more developed) • Multitude of Management Bodies, without guidance in the directive • Lack of compatibility of Directives: habitat,bird, nitrate, Marine ?

8. LESSONS FOR THE MARINE STRATEGY • Need to streamline the various directives, e.g. ecoregion based approach should be compatible with river-basin approach • Monitoring, pragmatic choices to be made • Public participation, a major challenge to stimulate public interest in marine subjects • Directive vs Recommendation: Low impact of Integrated Coastal Zone Management Recommendation