guaranteeing, on the one hand, quality services that meet the needs of local
communities and, from the other hand, cost-effective management methods.
Put it simply, a mechanism of a “multilevel system of government” seems to
emerge which results from the combination of Community-scale actions with
capacity transfer to local governments. To this should be added the growing
role of pro-active development strategies whereby different aspects of a same
sector interact.
Therefore, as to the protection of the management of water resources, the state
is asked to plan and monitor over time the quality and the quantity of water
resources, as well as to act as a controller with the help of the other
stakeholders involved.
The global approach defines all a series of methodologies and practices that
allow to respond to the needs of participation expressed by intermediate
subjects, i.e., those subjects placed at an intermediate level between central
government authorities and the community. Within this framework there exists
a real proliferation of “networks of stakeholders” both territorial and
functional and of cross-cutting policy networks (proliferations of advisory
panels, organized economic groups) that have a strong desire for greater self-
dependence and for a more active participatory role in the process.
In this respect, the community action within water services, as a “networked”
system, emphasizes the roles of the different levels (local, regional, national
and European) thus calling for a greater local/global, national/supranational
interaction inside the networks in a view of implementing a real integration of
the different roles and a real cooperation in terms of implementation of
projects. In this case negotiated planning, environmental concerted action, and
participatory decisionmaking are no longer meant as merely theoretical
notions and, in this respect, Directive 2000/60/EC seems to mirror, by means
of its provisions, the perspective a macro-level interrelated concerted action
amongst the member-States, as well as a micro-level “integrated management”
of water resources across the subjects involved at the various levels within the
same member-States.
Within the framework of local environmental water public utilities these
mechanisms are at the core of the provision of reference contained in Directive
2000/60/EC on a national scale. This same provision can be translated into the