Synergies and Conflicts of European Environmental Directives

On the agenda:

• the goals and functioning of different legal frameworks like EU Directives and Swedish National Environmental Goals
• potential synergies in the use of resources that might be achieved by better collaboration between the different EU directives
• possibilities to strengthen the EU Soil Directive based on experiences of other EU directives

European directives aim at protecting and improving the environmental quality of the nature in the member states. The directives have different goals, and it is important to communicate them, as well as to discuss possible synergies and conflicts. For example, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) stipulates that member states should achieve good ecological status of their waters by 2015 (European Communities 2000 link).  An example of synergy is to plan environmental monitoring programs carefully, developing/using  biological indicators which are able to class and follow up environmental goals of different European directives and if possible also National Environmental Goals.  A conflict of interest might arise between for example the Water Directive and the Directive on Renewable Energy (DRE) and/or the Swedish Environmental Objectives (SEO). According to the WFD, (almost) all water courses with hydropower dams have an insufficient/reduced/limited ecological status, implying that the dams should either be removed or rebuilt. However, the DRE encourages the building of hydropower dams. One purpose of this workshop is to identify potential conflicts of interest between EU directives.  Another goal is to identify synergies in the use of resources that might be achieved by better collaboration when implementing EU directives. Concerning the latter, more focus should be placed on harmonizing environmental goals, and designing and implementing robust and cost-effective assessment programs. The development and implementation of the EU Soil Directive could take advantages of the experiences of the existing environmental directives.

Keynote speakers

Dr. Peter Kristensen
European Environment Agency (EEA)
Project manager - Integrated water resource management

Peter Kristensen, Project manager on Integrated Water Resource Management, European Environment Agency, has more than 20 years experience in the assessing the state of and pressures affecting Europe's water. A wide experience in state of the environment reporting and data management at national and European level including a European-wide knowledge of water resources, water abstraction and water use; water quality and pollution; climate change impacts on water; and sector activities affecting the state of water quantity and water quality.

www.eea.europa.eu
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/10-messages-for-2010-2014-1

Prof.em. Dr. Johan Bouma

Prof. em. Dr. Bouma received his MSC and PhD degree at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and served as a postdoc at the Soils Dept. University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, studying soil disposal of septic tank effluent. In 1973 he became a UW Associate Professor with tenure. In 1975 he returned with his family to the Netherlands where he started the Department of Soil Physics at the Netherlands Soil Survey Institute (STIBOKA), becoming Deputy Director in charge of research in 1983. In 1986, he joined Wageningen University as Professor of Soil Inventarisation and Land Evaluation, a position from which he retired in 2004. His research covered water and solute movement in structured soils, relating soil morphology to flow patterns; development of pedotransferfunctions; effects of soil management defined in terms of phenoforms, to be derived from a given taxonomic soil-genoform; land use policy; and interactive research with stakeholders and policy makers . From 1998 to 2003 he was a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy, a think-tank in the prime minister’s office. He is a fellow of the SSSA (1983), an elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (1989) and a Korrespondierender Mitglied Deutsche Bdenkundliche Gesellschaft (1989). He is a honorary member of the International Union of Soil Sciences ( 2006) and of the Dutch Soil Science Society ( 2010).

http://www.iuss.org/popup/Bouma.htm

Additional working group leaders

Dr. Luca Montanarella, European commission.
Soil Portal, Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esdb_archive/Staff/Montanarella.html

Dr. Lena Tranvik, Swedish Species Information Center Conservation and restoration of freshwater and wetland habitats.
http://www.artdata.slu.se/personal/fotolt.asp