Sveriges implementering av miljömålen i ramvattendirektivet - En analys av kommissionens kritik och regeringens lagförslag

Sammanfattning: For more than ten years the European Commission has criticised Sweden’s implementation of the Water Framework Directive. The critique resulted in a government bill (prop. 2017/18:243 Vattenmiljö och vattenkraft) in April 2018, to solve the shortcomings. This thesis focuses on the Commission’s criticism of the implementation of the environmental objectives for the status of bodies of surface water in article 4.1.a.i in the Water Framework Directive. The purpose of this paper is to understand why the Commission criticises the Swedish implementation of the directive, and to discuss if the new law proposal in the government bill will improve the implementation. In other words, I will try to answer the following two questions: firstly, why the Commission criticises Sweden’s implementation of the Water Framework Directive, and secondly, if the government bill will solve the problems. To answer the questions, I have studied legislation, legislative history and doctrine as well as the submissions sent by the European Commission to the Swedish government. My conclusion is that the reason Sweden has been criticised is that Swedish law does not make the environmental objectives legally binding in the way the Water Framework Directive requires. To begin with, Sweden has not made the environmental objectives for ecological status completely mandatory in the process of permit application. Moreover, there are some restrictions in the possibility to add new conditions when reviewing the permit of a business, which is not in accordance with the directive. I believe that the proposals in the government bill will solve the first problem concerning the environmental objectives for ecological status. On the other hand I am not sure the second critique regarding the review of permits will be followed through the proposed legislation. The government bill suggests a specific regulation for hydroelectric power plants for which full permit review will be possible. However, for other kinds of businesses, the problems of today will remain.