Abstract
The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) is widely accepted as the most substantial and ambitious piece of European environmental legislation to date. It has been referred to as a once in a generation opportunity to restore Europe’s waters and a potential template for future environmental regulations. However, fifteen years since it was adopted, and with many problems and delays in its implementation, the WFD has not delivered its main objectives of non-deterioration of water status and the achievement of good status for all EU waters.
Putting aside the daunting technical and organisational challenges of its implementation, this seminar aims to shed light on why the great expectations that came with the WFD have not yet been fully realised.
Speaker Bio
Theodoros Giakoumis is a 2nd year PhD student at the Centre of Environmental Policy and his research is on the assessment of water quality under the WFD. He was involved with the EU (FP7) LEDRA project as a GIS analyst in 2011 and currently with the EU GLOBAQUA (Policy WP) project as a PhD student. He holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial and MSc/BSc in Natural Resources Management with specialisation in Soil Chemistry from the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). He worked as a research assistant at the AUA for a number of environmental planning projects as well as lab-based projects on soil chemistry and water quality.