The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) prescribes environmental objectives and an adaptive water governance system. This article analyses the Swedish implementation of the WFD through a review of high-profile Swedish court cases regarding the application of the WFD environmental objectives in individual authorisation processes for water operations. The selection of court cases represents both the time before and after the Court of Justice of the European Union’s Weser case in 2015. The results indicate an inertial tendency in the legal application of the WFD environmental objectives in Swedish courts, including a reluctance to fully apply EU law as interpreted by the CJEU. The overall conclusion is that traditional legal certainty aspects often trump flexibility and a high level of environmental protection as desired in the adaptive water governance system of the WFD. This raises questions about judicial preconceptions and the procedural autonomy of the Member States vis-à-vis the ‘effet utile’ of EU law through judicial implementation.

Spatial planning activities plays a crucial role in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (‘WFD’) and the achievement of its environmental objectives. In Sweden, spatial planning is regulated foremost through the Planning and Building Act (2010:900) (‘PBA’). In this article, the lack of external integration of the integrated planning and adaptive water management system of the WFD into Swedish spatial planning law is addressed, and necessary legislative changes are discussed. The obligations for the municipalities in this regard are analysed in the light of our general legal obligations under EU law, particularly as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’). In Weser, the WFD’s environmental objectives, including the obligation to prevent deterioration, were declared as legally binding in each stage of implementation. This entails that in each decision-making situation, including spatial planning decisions or local building permits that might have adverse impact on the aquatic environment, the WFD environmental objectives must be complied with. However, the result reveals a clear lack of legal integration between the freshwater governance system and the legal framework for spatial planning in Sweden. As a consequence, water quality aspects are at great risk of being ignored in planning activities at the local or regional level, making the WFD’s environmental objectives significantly more difficult to achieve under the current legal framework.

This article discusses the EU Water Framework Directive from a legal perspective, with special focus on the environmental effects of stormwater. Efficient management of polluted stormwater is a crucial measure to take in order to obtain the objectives of the directive, in particular a “good water status”. However, analyses of legal material supplemented by interviews indicate inefficient Swedish implementation. Although the Swedish Environmental Code contains several legal management control measures that can be used to improve the handling of stormwater, the relevant provisions are not precise enough, leaving considerable room for discretionary judgements to the administrative authorities and municipalities involved. Furthermore, enforcement authorities fail to comply with the legal tasks to initiate reviews of old permits in order to adjust the conditions to the modern environmental requirements stipulated in the directive.