Ecologic analyses the German approach to flood protection by looking at existing legislation and the furthering of policy development. Strengths and weaknesses have been outlined and conclusions and recommendations are drawn in a paper.

Flood Protection in the EU

During the last two decades, flooding events have become noticeably more frequent, in Europe and elsewhere. In the wake of the 2002 events, the EC Council of Ministers (Environment) following an initiative of France, addressed the issue of precautionary and sustainable flood protection in Luxembourg on 17 October 2002. A month later, in November 2002 in Copenhagen, the European Commission and the Water Directors were requested to move forward on an EU-wide strategy for sustainable flood prevention as a basis for further Council decisions. To this end, a "Core Group on Flood Protection of the Water Directors" was established, preparing a report on Best Practices on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation. This document lays out the EU approach towards flood management. It aims to describe measures and best practices to prevent, protect and mitigate the adverse impact of flood events on human health and safety, on valuable goods and property, as well as on the aquatic and terrestrial environment.

European Workshop on flooding

Before this background, a workshop was organised by CEMAGREF in Paris on 4 and 5 December 2003 to particularly address the question of preventative and remediation instruments in the case of flooding in France and other EU countries. Further experiences between the different EU Member States should be shared. In this context, the German contribution to the workshop was prepared by Ecologic in the form of a background paper.

Contents of the background paper:

• assessment of the legal and policy framework for flood prevention and remediation,
  relevant regulations in the field of landscape planning on a national level,
• assessment of the framework of a couple of German Länder since the competences for these policy fields are divided amongst the different administrative levels in Germany,
• evaluation of the different private and public financing mechanisms that exist in Germany to fund remediation of flood damages,
• analysis of the upcoming instruments to prevent flood damage,
• analysis of the findings with particular attention to the policy and legal gaps as well as implementation problems.