Seite - 246 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

2.2 Regional-Level InstrumentswithFocusontheEuropean Union Instruments to tackle the problems concerning freshwater (micro)plastics in the EuropeanUnion are typically regional agreements, regional programs, legislation, or activities dealing with specific problems of freshwater (micro)plastics. The Lisbon Treaty, which aimed at increasing the consistency and coherence of the EU’s external actions, stated inArticle 191 that theEUpolicyon the environment shall contribute to preserve, protect, and improve the quality of the environment, protect human health, utilize natural resources in a prudent and rationalway, and promotemeasures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide envi- ronmental problems. In this context, theEuropean directives dealingwith various aspects of environmental protection can be seen. In the light of the increasing number of scientific publications dealing with the impacts of (micro)plastics on aquatic environments, especially on aquatic organisms, as well as due to the transboundary dimension of plastic pollution, the EU is called upon to develop appropriate policy strategies. As already mentioned, the “water-based policies” such as water protection (MSFD, WFD) and the “land-based policies” such as wastemanagement, plastic production and product design, circular economy, and REACHareaffectedor likely tobeaffectedbythe issueof (micro)plasticpollution of freshwater systems. 2.2.1 Water-BasedPolicy The most important directives for the European water policy are the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) [4] and theWater Framework Directive (WFD) [7] establishing the legal framework for theprotectionofEuropeanmarine and freshwater environments, respectively. Although both aim at implementing a good ecological/environmental status, there is a large discrepancy between them regarding the issue of plastic waste. In theMSFD,waste is defined as one out of 11 qualitative indicators of the good environmental status (descriptor 10 “marine litter”; forfurtherdiscussion,see[5]),whereas in theWFD,waste isnotmentioned. Inapossiblefuturerevisionof theWFD(nextreviewduein2019), thisdiscrepancy might be clarified. EuropeanWaterFrameworkDirective (WFD) TheWFD has been enacted in October 2000 by the European Commission and focuseson“maintainingand improving theaquaticenvironment in theCommunity [. . .] ensuring good [water] quality” [7, p. 2]. Therefore, the amount of pollution entering waterways should be minimized, and the objectives for future water protection should be set. “It does not set exact regulations, but gives each country space to fit the national legislation to put it into practice and arranges and coordi- nates existingEuropeanwater legislation” [15, p. 80]. In recital 40, it is noted that 246 N.Brennholt et al.