Reflections on the challenges of EU policy-making with view to flood risk management: Actors, processes and the acquis communautaire

Abstract

Europe has a long history of devastation caused by floods. Each flood event triggers dynamic spatial and temporal mechanisms, which include the mobilisation of many multi-disciplinary actors, setting up and/or revision of many administrative and operational processes, and entry into force and/or update of legal frameworks. Depending on geographical extent of the flooding coupled with national modus operandi of countries, the above-mentioned mechanisms may take place at local, regional and national levels. However, as floods can also be a transboundary phenomenon, and as events in one country are no longer isolated but are strictly related to progress towards increased social cohesion and competitiveness within the European Union (EU), European initiatives dealing with floods and other major hazards have gained momentum and are considered a strategic objective in the EU. This is evidenced by the establishment of the EU Solidarity Fund1 that was set up in the aftermath of the Central European flooding in August 2002 “providing financial assistance to contribute to a rapid return to normal living conditions in the disaster-stricken regions”. The decision-making process prescribed in the Treaty establishing the European Community2 (TEC) would govern the legal basis for any potential flood risk management initiative at EU level and would mainly be based on Article 174, comma 23 of the TEC This paper introduces the reader to the EU decision-making mechanism by briefly describing the actors of the EU inter-institutional decision-making process with view to flood risk management. It also gives an overview of the existing European Commission (CEC)4 efforts in the field and portrays the challenges the EU has to face given the state-of-the-art of flood risk management at EU level. Finally, a glimpse of a strategy to provide added-value through EU policy endeavours to complement national initiatives are proposed.