Transformation to Healthy Water Ecology—Institutional Requirements, Deficits and Options in European and German Perspective

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) obliges EU Member States to achieve good ecological status in all surface waters by 2027 at the latest. In many regions, this implies fundamental transformation from engineered water landscapes back to near-natural structures. By example of the German State of Lower Saxony it is shown how this transformation of water landscapes essentially requires a transformation of the institutional foundations of water management, too. It is argued from a legal perspective that certain general, justiciable minimum requirements are to be deduced from the WFD as to (1) planning and enforcement of restoration measures, (2) land acquisition, (3) organisation and (4) finance which delimit the ample margins Member States enjoy in designing the institutional substructure. With regard to Lower Saxony, it is explained why this State is clearly failing to meet the minimum requirements and how it needs to transform its institutional arrangements to make them fit for purpose. The article concludes that WFD enforcement should pay more attention to the institutional underpinning and it submits that examples and benchmarks should be further explored by comparative research.