In this book chapter, R. Andreas Kraemer from Ecologic Institute addresses the governance of water and the EU’s Water Framework Directive, focusing mainly on subsidiarity applied to water policy. He describes the conflict arising from a territorial and a bioregional perspective on the subject, and the management of this conflict through the principle of subsidiarity. The chapter features an outline of the Water Framework Directive's origin and its core ideas, illustrates approaches of water management using examples, including one from the Danube River region, and a number of hydrological maps and gives an outlook to further developments of the water governance area.

The chapter is part of the book entitled, "Making The Passage Through The 21st Century: Water as a Catalyst for Change", which is the proceedings of the conference of the same name at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, LNEC, in Lisbon, Portugal, on 16-18 January 2006, where R. Andreas Kraemer held a presentation. The chapter also contains the presentation’s slides R. Andreas Kraemer used for his speech.