Transboundary Water Governance in the European Union: The (Unresolved) Allocation Question

Abstract

While the European Union (EU) has one of the most extensive and sophisticated supranational water policyworldwide, its transboundary governance framework has certain structural deficiencies that may eventually giverise to significant cooperation gridlocks over shared river basins. Most prominently, EU water law as well asthe numerous European basin treaties almost comprehensively ignore transboundary water quantity managementand allocation questions. This lacuna is due to a series of hydro-geographical, political and institutional factorsprevailing at the time when the foundations of today’s European framework of transboundary water governancewere laid down in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, changing hydrological conditions points to increasing fluctuations inwater quantities in European river basins. Due to their one-sided ecological focus, however, the existing Europeangovernance mechanisms may prove unable to handle a growing competition for water among riparian states in caseof flow variations beyond historical ranges. This article investigates the roots and the possible future implicationsof the unresolved transboundary allocation question within the EU.