University of Peloponnese Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Department of Political Science and International Relations Transboundary Freshwater Resources Management: Greece and its neighbors towards Cooperation or Conflict? Anastasios I. Valvis PhD Thesis Corinth, November 2015 DECLARATION : I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of the Peloponnese is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgment is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Πανεπιστήµιο Πελοποννήσου Σχολή Κοινωνικών και Πολιτικών Επιστηµών Τµήµα Πολιτικής Επιστήµης και ∆ιεθνών Σχέσεων ∆ιαχείριση ∆ιασυνοριακών Υδατικών Πηγών : Η Ελλάδα και οι Γείτονες της στο ∆ρόµο της Συνεργασίας ή της Σύγκρουσης ; Αναστάσιος Ι. Βάλβης ∆ιδακτορική διατριβή Κόρινθος, Νοέμβριος 2015 ii iii Aknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for their contribution to the completion of this thesis. Firstly and above all I would like to thank Professor Asteris Huliaras, my supervisor, for his patience throughout all these years and his continuous effort to push me in order to achieve a result to be proud of. His advices were the best motivation for me to continue and overcome the obstacles I faced all these years. Secondly, I would like to thank my family for their support both moral and material. They were the recipients of my emotions either positive or negative and their support has been invaluable throughout all this period. To continue I would also like to thank the other members of my tripartite committee, Associate prof. K. Ifantis and Associate prof. E. Lasaridi. I would particularly like to express my gratitude to the experts that I had the honor to interview and shared their personal experiences with me. In particular, former Ambassador Alexandros Mallias, Mr. Eythymios Oulianoudis (former Head of Civilian Protection of Evros Perfecture), Mr. Jacques Ganoulis (Emeritus Professor of Aristotle University), Mr. Chris Petritzikis (former General Secretary of Evros Prefecture), Mr. Kostas Ouzounis (Professor of the Polytechnic School of Democritus University), Mr. Alkis Papademetriou (International Programme Director at Dramma’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and Mr. Konstantinos Katsimidis (Head of Construction Works, Region of Eastern Macedonia). Finally, I would like to thank Ms K. Poseidon for helping me with the language editing of this thesis. iv Transboundary Freshwater Resources Management: Greece and its neighbors towards Cooperation or Conflict? Keywords: Environmental Security, International Water Law, Cooperation, Conflict, Evros, Nestos, Strymonas, Axios, Aoos, Prespa Lake Summary New global challenges led to the gradual contestation of the traditional perceptions around the term of “Security.” Even if the political-military perception has not been contested at its core, new insights attempted to transfer the focus from the state to the human. Within this framework, the concept of “human security” appeared in academic discourse. One of its basic directions is “environmental security” which has been established along with the continuous rise of environmental issues and in particular the importance of water resources, on the international political agenda. The definition of “environmental security” differs according to the angle from which one approaches it. However, there are two main conceptual categorizations. The first understands “environmental security” in terms of environmental protection (ecological security) that needs collective action to be accomplished. The second one considers it as a traditional state-centric term, referring to the importance of protecting the environmental, wealth- producing resources that help maintain a state’s security and that of its citizens. Within this discussion lies the management of transboundary freshwater resources. The multifaceted importance of water (energy, irrigation, etc.) placed it at the center of the discussion on the environment. At a global level, various initiatives led to the adoption of rules in an attempt to delimit the framework within which states sharing freshwater resources can utilize them. In the beginning, these rules and norms focused mostly on the utilization instead of collective action for protection, clearly underlining the understanding of “environmental security” within state-centric terms. Gradually, however, initiatives and actions moved from utilization towards the protection of freshwater resources and to the need to adopt common principles. Yet, the lack of a recognized institution of global reach empowered to impose on states the necessary v policies remains an obstacle for the promotion of integrated collaboration among states sharing freshwater resources. At a European level, progress is more obvious since the adoption of the 2000/60 Water Framework Directive, promoting cooperation with the goal of protecting transboundary freshwater resources. Greece is a riparian state of five Balkan rivers of which only one (the Aoos/Vjose) springs from her territory. Despite the fact that these rivers are of significant importance in environmental and political-economic terms, the level of cooperation between Greece and the neighboring countries as far as their management is concerned remains low, with a slight exception of a relative improvement taking place during the last years. Three out of five rivers come from Bulgaria (the Evros/Meric/Maritza, the Nestos/Mesta and the Strymonas/Struma). Of these, the Evros River also includes a third riparian state, Turkey, making its management even more complicated compared to the other two (the River is also a natural border line between Greece and Turkey). All three rivers are of great importance not only for the local economies but also in environmental terms. Attempts for cooperation have begun from the 1960s. Yet, these took place within the framework of the dominant international customary law, meaning under the basic principles of utilization of the water. The basic elements of the agreements until the early 21 st century were the principles of “limited sovereignty” and of “equal utilization” treating water as a commercial good. The only exception was the 1995 agreement for the Nestos River that included confronting environmental challenges through the sustainable management of the river. However, even in this case, greater attention during the negotiations was paid to the quantity of the water instead of the configuration of an integrated plan of environmental management, while with the increase of rainfall the agreement remained for the most part inactive. Since 2002 due to the WFD that gradually began to be implemented there was a radical change. Nevertheless the developments remained quite slow for a number of reasons. West of the Strymonas lies the Axios (Vardar) River which is shared by FYROM and Greece. Its management remains fragmented with the two riparians following their own policies. The chances of finding an integrated solution are limited mostly because of the problematic political relations between the two neighboring countries. Thus, the Axios remains a river that receives important environmental pressures due to the lack of an integrated management plan. vi The last transboundary river lying to the West of Greece is the Aoos (Vjose). The Aoos is the only transboundary river coming from Greece. The river crosses Greece and Albania and despite, once more, the lack of an integrated management plan and a stable cooperation scheme, it has a generally good environmental status mostly because of the limited utilization of its waters. The Aoos River is one more case of a transboundary river where the political relationship of the two riparian states is limiting the achievement of successful cooperation. Yet, problematic political relations are not the only hindrance to creation of integrated transboundary management planned in the aforementioned case studies. The national bureaucratic models and the decision-making process related to environmental issues of the riparian states have also contributed negatively. With Greece not excluded, there is a great complexity in the jurisdictions among the different agencies and ministries, which makes coordination extremely difficult and transboundary cooperation almost impossible. The only case of successful transboundary cooperation at the moment is the Prespa Lakes. The reasons behind the progress so far are three. The first one is related to Greece and the fact that she, as a regional power, considered the promotion of trilateral cooperation to be a step toward regional stability. The second reason lies in the great environmental importance of the lake, which attracted the interest of national and international NGOs and institutions. International Organizations, governmental or not, participating in the management of the lake are the connecting ring which moved beyond the various problems existing in the case studies of the aforementioned rivers. Finally, the third reason is that the Prespa Lakes have less significance as a wealth producing resource, compared to the rivers. This research, by using a multidisciplinary approach stemming from the great