The report "Global Review of Economic Instruments for Water Management in Latin America" provides practical examples of experience with economic instruments in water management, mainly in European and other OECD countries. It assists in identifying appropriate instruments for the Latin American context and demonstrates the constraints and impediments to their introduction.

Ecologic analyses, within the framework of this project, the institutional interactions between international treaty systems and European environmental instruments. Although they are negotiated separately, they affect each other's performance and effectiveness. Such 'institutional interaction' will inevitably cause conflicts if regulatory approaches are incompatible. If approaches are mutually reinforcing, however, it may also create synergies. If not addressed properly, inter-institutional conflicts can inhibit and counteract the effectiveness of international environmental co-operation.

This project aimed at specifying the first draft of the German guidance document for the economic analysis according to the EU Water Framework Directive. The revision process was based on the analysis of the WATECO Guidance Document as well as on experience gained through the Middle Rhine and Lippe pilot projects. On 15 January 2003, the revised version of the German Guidance Document was discussed and presented to the interested public.

On 23rd October 2001 the European Commission presented the proposal for a directive establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community. The proposal plans a collective European approach to trading with emission allowances, which should come into effect by 2005. The objective of this workshop, that took place one year after the publication of the proposal, was to gain an overall view of the discussion process and to draw up a first summary.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol to protect the global climate is an incomplete agreement. Many of its provisions require a further specification in order to make the Protocol ratifiable for countries. In this project, concrete options and proposals for the elaboration of the Kyoto Protocol were developed for the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

The "EU Common Forum on Contaminated Land" was initiated in 1994 and provides a discussion forum for experts from all EU Member States and Accession Countries. Main topics are the develoment of strategies for the treatment of contaminated sites and for land recycling. Key aspects of the 9th meeting of the Forum in November 2002 at Berlin are the Groundwater Directive, Environmental Liability, Soil Policy, Sustainable Landuse, the 6th RTD Framework Program and two EU research projects (EUGRIS, METROPOLIS).

The debate over possible health effects caused by electromagnetic fields (EMF) like e.g. mobile phones has increased in the last years. Ecologic produced a study about the "analysis of the scientific discourse on possible health effects and ecological risks by mobile telecommunication and transmitters" for the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag.

An important issue with regard to the Middle and Eastern European enlargement of the European Union is the development of environmental infrastructures. The EU promotes this process, e.g., with the financing programme ISPA. For German enterprises, this provides new business opportunities. Therefore, Ecologic organizes this seminar, informing the respective businesses about existing challenges and risks.

The overriding objective of this research project, called for in the Environmental Research Agenda of the German Federal Environmental Agency, is the analysis of existing liability regimes in the light of the further development of the European liability regime. Using an interdisciplinary research approach, both national liability regimes within and outside Europe and international regimes will be examined regarding the extent to which environmental damages can be compensated, the procedures and methods in existence for determining and calculating damage and compensation in theory and practice and the manner in which the compensation is carried out.

With the project "The Mediterranean Action Plan and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Identifying Goals and Capacities – Improving Co-operation and Synergies", Ecologic focuses on a series of institutional challenges and opportunities which the two major regional organisations in the Mediterranean basin are facing.

What has been done to promote a sustainable development within the European Union? What kind of policy approaches or initiatives have been developed at the European level in order to implement in a comprehensive way the objectives of Agenda 21? On behalf of the European Commission (DG Environment), IEEP – in association with Ecologic – has been commissioned to carry out the EU's implementation report. The draft report responds to all 40 chapters of Agenda 21 outlining a general assessment of the state of EU implementation as regards the objectives of the Agenda 21 as well as constraints, major challenges and recommendations for additional measures that could be taken at EC and international level to support further progress.

Different reform initiatives and processes of general interest or of specifically an environmental nature, like the Lisbon process or the 6th Environmental Action Program, will have substantial influence on the future shaping of European environmental politics. The study "EU Environmental Governance" analyses and assesses these initiatives and lays down new options for their further development.