Müssner, Rainer; Zbigniew Karaczun; Thomas Dworak and Katrina Mardsen 2006: Deliverable 12 – WFD and Agriculture Linkages at the EU Level – Final Report about Cross Compliance and the WFD. Ecologic – Institute for International and European Environmental Policy, Berlin.

In this article Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Ecologic Senior Fellow, discusses the need for international environmental governance reform, the advantages and disadvantages of creating a United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO) and its potential in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The article is available for download.

Dworak, Thomas; Nadine Herbke; Rainer Müssner et al. 2006: WFD and Agriculture Linkages at the EU Level. Synthesis Report of the 2005-06 Activity of the SSG on "WFD and Agriculture". Berlin.

"Ambitious Environmental Policy – The Basis for Sustainable Industrial Development" was the theme of a Side Event at the 14th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York on 11 May 2006. It addressed the relations between business and policy-making, and the role of regulation and dynamics of change in China and Germany. German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel opened the event, chaired by R. Andreas Kraemer.

The Università Luigi Bocconi organised a conference on behalf of the Milan municipality to analyse Milan's wastewater treatment system as regards sustainability issues, organisational models and future challenges. The conference took place on 4 May 2006. Researchers from around Europe presented five case studies on European experience with wastewater management in urban areas. Ecologic Fellow Nadine Herbke presented the results of the Berlin and Emscher case studies.

Dworak, Thomas; Nicole Kranz; Zbigniew Karaczun and Nadine Herbke 2006: Deliverable 14 – WFD and Agriculture Linkages at the EU level – Final Paper about Co-operation and participation at the interface of EU Agricultural and Water Policies. Ecologic – Institute for International and European Environmental Policy, Berlin.

The use of public procurement policy to achieve sustainable development objectives has increased steadily over the past decade. Amongst the various "green procurement" initiatives, forestry is a sector which received much attention. However, unlike areas such as product safety or energy efficiency, the use of public procurement to enhance sustainable forest management (SFM) is extremely complex – largely because the elements of SFM are broad ranging, variable, and to some extent controversial.

Oosterhuis, Frans (Ed.) 2006: Ex-post Estimates of Costs to Business of EU Environmental Legislation. Final report for the European Commission. Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Müssner, Rainer; Anna Leipprand; Stephanie Schlegel et al. 2006: Deliverable 6 – CROSS-COMPLIANCE Facilitating the CAP reform: Compliance and competitiveness of European agriculture – Specific Targeted Research or Innovation Project (STREP) – Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area – Overview of certification schemes in 7 EU countries and 3 non-EU countries – Germany Country Report. Ecologic – Institute for International and European Environmental Policy, Berlin.

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.

On invitation of DG Economic and Financial Affairs and DG Environment, Ingo Bräuer, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the use of Market Based Instruments in the field of nature conservation.

With flooding in Central Europe once more headline news this spring and the loss of at least twelve lives across Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia, the proposal for a new Floods Directive from the European Commission in January 2006 seems like a timely intervention. Ecologic together with IEEP has produced a preliminary assessment of the Flood Directive proposed by the European Commission. It is intended as a policy briefing to help inform members of the European Parliament about the issues involved when discussing the proposal.

First methodological ideas on how to proceed with the cost-effectiveness analysis under the EU Water Framework Directive have already been developed by a number of European Member States. Yet, important methodological challenges remain, in particular with regard to a scale adapted procedure. This paper takes up the current debate and develops ideas on how to address the problem of interlinking bottom-up and top-down approaches for the selection of cost-effective sets of measures under the Directive.

Contingent valuation studies and their results are often criticised. This paper describes the findings of an experimental survey that tests the influence of survey design on strategic behaviour.

Like environmental policy in general, water policy in particular is subject to constant change. In his article published in the journal Wasser und Abfall (Water and Waste), Peter Kessler describes the shift from an instrumental to an objective-oriented approach. While the water crisis in the Hessisches Ried was still mastered with the instrumental approach, the quality objectives of the German Länder Working Group on Water Issues (LAWA) and the water quality objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) represent the quality objective orientation.