Ecologic Institute Senior Fellow Dr Ingmar von Homeyer gave a lecture on the challenges of implementing EU environmental framework directives. The lecture was part of an expert-workshop on recent developments in EU environmental policy. Ingmar von Homeyer explained the distinctive implementation requirements of different types of EU environmental framework directives.

European environmental policy can be analyzed as an amalgam of four to five environmental governance "regimes". Two of the relatively recent governance regimes are each connected with a different type of framework directive: The "integration regime" with "integrative" and the "sustainable development regime" with "reflexive" framework directives. Ingmar von Homeyer identified and analyzed key characteristics of these regimes because successful implementation of the different types of framework directives necessitates an understanding of the wider political context in which the framework directives are developed and with which they remain connected. Drawing on the example of the EU Water Framework Directive, he subsequently presented various aspects of the implementation of "reflexive" framework directives. He concluded by outlining some of the main implementation challenges associated with both "integrative" and "reflexive" framework directives.