On behalf of the European Commission, DG Environment, Ecologic Fellow Thomas Dworak participated in a workshop on the WFD and Agriculture and gave a presentation on EU agricultural policies and water management. The workshop was held in Malinska, Croatia on 25 and 26 April 2006 and organised by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) together with the UNDP-GEF Danube Regional Project.

Under its mandate for 2005-06, the Strategic Steering Group (SSG) on WFD and Agriculture has initiated numerous activities including five issues reports and two important conferences hosted under the UK and Austrian presidency, respectively. Due to the huge amount of information and debates produced by these activities, a synthesis of the SSG activities during the duration of this mandate was identified to be necessary. The European Commission, DG Environment commissioned Ecologic to prepare this synthesis document.

Under the mandate of the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), Ecologic and the Warsaw Agricultural University (WAU) have been commissioned to update the working document "WFD and Agriculture – Analysis of the Pressures and Impacts". The initial report has been prepared in the frame of the DG RTD project "Common Agricultural Policy meets Water Framework Directive – Opportunities for the future" and presented at the UK Presidency conference on WFD and agriculture in September 2005.

This project aims to support the countries of the Sava river basin (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia & Montenegro) in their long-term objective of elaborating a Sava River Basin Management Plan.

Based on an initiative of the Grüne Liga e.V. a seminar with the title: On the way towards the "Good status"- Critical aspects of the WFD was held on 24 March 2006. Rainer Müssner from Ecologic gave a presentation about the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU and the Water Framework Directive. The main focus of Müssner's presentation was the linkages between these policy areas and options to create synergies.

The Directorate-General Trade of the European Commission held its "Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment Stocktaking Conference: Implementing Sustainable Trade" in Brussels on 21-22 March 2006. R. Andreas Kraemer chaired the key first session looking at the extent to which Trade Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) have changed the way the European Union makes trade policy.

Ecologic Institute, as a Member of the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development (BFSD), partnered with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and Transparency International (TI) to convene an awareness-raising event showcasing the new Water Integrity Network (WIN) at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico. It highlighted the importance of improving integrity and governance structures in the sector, as a precondition for meeting the ambitious Millennium Development Goals.

The RhineNet project, a multi-stakeholder initiative to foster sustainable water management through strengthening public participation in the Rhine basin, was featured as a local action at the World Water Forum held in Mexico City in March 2006. Nicole Kranz, Fellow with Ecologic, presented the key aspects and lessons learned of RhineNet on behalf of the entire project team in a session organized by the International Network of Basin Organization (INBO) on "Users' and public participation and common cause in basin management".

The US energy and climate policy – particularly political dynamics at the sub-national level – was the topic of the Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honour of Jim Marzilli.  Since 1990, Marzilli has been campaigning for environmental- and energy-sector reforms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Against the backdrop of increasingly dynamic climate and energy policy debates, the participants discussed the potential for reforms as well as possible hurdles at the city and state levels.  The Transatlantic Climate Dinner took place on March 16, 2006 in Berlin.

The German development co-operation is putting five million Euro towards the establishment of a trans-border protected areas fund for the Southern Caucasus. The Federal Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul made the announcement at the opening of the conference "Nature Protection in the Caucasus", which Ecologic organised, on 9 March 2006 in Berlin.

An important goal of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to achieve good chemical status of surface waters by 2015. According to Article 1(c) "specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances" must be implemented. For the priority hazardous substances, discharges, emissions and losses must be stopped or phased-out. The German Federal Environment Agency published this report, which Ecologic contributed to.

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) seeks to create a system of graduated co-operation and association contracts. The core will be a pan-European internal market. However, the integration of other policies, most notably in the areas of security co-operation, energy and the environment, play a crucial role. Other geopolitical actors like Russia will compete with the EU on the concepts that will define the common European space of the future.