The EC Water Framework Directive and transboundary water systems: the case of the Danube Basin and the Black Sea region

The objective of this work is to analyse the process of implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Black Sea Region (which includes both the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea) from the legal and institutional point of view, both at regional and national levels. At the regional level, the paper makes a comparison between the Directive, on the one hand and the DRPC and the Bucharest Convention, on the other, since, serving different purposes, they only partially overlap. At the national level, progress by candidate countries in implementing the WFD is examined, as well as the work of the "third countries" of the Region towards convergence of their water legislation with the EU acquis.