The Water Framework Directive acts as a driver for integrated water management in EU member states. In this paper, Eleftheria Kampa, Fellow at Ecologic, and Hans Bressers, Professor at the University of Twente, use a conceptual framework from institutional resource regime theory to characterize and explain the development of the Greek national water regime in terms of integration. The article was published in the Journal "Water Policy" 10/5.
The specific analytical framework used combines public resource policies with property rights and operationalizes the concept of integration for resource regimes.
The paper concentrates on attempts at more integrated water management in Greece (via important national water laws), which were mainly driven by increasing water resource degradation and EU water policies. It is argued that national attempts since the 1980s (especially the 1987 Water Law) were unsuccessful also under the influence of an unfavourable institutional context which prevailed at the time of the attempts. The outcome of a new 2003 Water Law in practice remains to be seen. The path to integration must involve significant efforts to overcome institutional obstacles which hindered integrated water management in the past.
The paper is published in the Journal Water Policy, Volume 10, No. 5.