ABSTRACT

This Chapter provides a unique historical perspective of the way groundwater governance has evolved in the EU within the past three decades, based on a dialogue science-policy and a change of priorities from purely economic considerations to environmental preservation. First, the 1976 “Dangerous Substances” Directive and the drafting of the first EU groundwater directive (1980) are described, with the groundwater survey and mapping carried out in the early 1980s, followed by the Ministerial Seminars of Frankfurt in 1988 on the Community Water Policy and The Hague in 1991 on Groundwater. The main orientations of the 1996 Groundwater Action Plan are then introduced, which have been taken aboard in the policy discussions that led to the adoption of the 2000 European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD). In this context, the call for a new groundwater regulation (under Article 17 of the WFD) is explained, as well as the consultation process and the related scientific support that enabled the adoption of the 2006 “Daughter” Groundwater Directive and its implication for groundwater governance at the EU level. Besides, the Chapter insists on an essential dimension of Groundwater Governance considering River Basin Management, introduced and developed by the WFD, providing a coherent planning and management system integrating surface water and groundwater, water quantity and quality, land-use planning and the interactions with the sectoral economic policies.