Page - 242 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

of the requirements concerning future standards and guidelines is given from the perspectiveof specializedauthoritiesconductingmonitoringprogramsonregional, state, andnational level (Germany). 2 RegulatoryandPolicy Instruments This section provides a brief overviewof the current regulatory andpolicy instru- ments developed at international, regional, and national levels associatedwith the issueof (micro)plastics in freshwater systems (Fig. 1).National policy instruments apply only to a particular country, whereas regional instruments tackle certain problemswithin a specific geographical region, e.g., Europe. International regula- tion and regional agreements, for instance, are transposed intonational legislation, so that similar texts canbe found in the instruments at the national level. The interfaces with the legislation are various: direct links are more likely in marine regulation,whereas freshwater (micro)plastics are not explicitly addressed in regulation so far, although this issue is related, for instance, tomanyEuropean directives.Within this section,anattempt isbeingmade todemonstrate this link. If possible, regulatorystrategies for the integrationof (micro)plastics inexisting legal instrumentsareproposed.However, the focus isonEuropeanregulatoryandpolicy instruments. Fig. 1 Levels of regulatory andpolicy instruments and initiatives for the regulation, assessment, andmanagement of freshwater (micro)plastic litter. *REACHRegulation concerning theRegis- tration,Evaluation,Authorisation andRestrictionofChemicals 242 N.Brennholt et al.