The Transfer of Public Policies in the Troubled Waters of the Mediterranean: Regional Water Management Arrangements

The question addressed in this paper is simple: who manages water policy? Yet the answer is difficult. Although the paper questions governance and the issue of who manages when nobody manages, if water management is one of the areas most affected by the internationalization and trans-nationalization of norms, the national and subnational levels remain relevant. We address these issues regarding the fresh waters of the Mediterranean region in comparison with other European regions. Southern Europe and its regions are often cited as a specific case within a global context of scarcity and the management of a “crisis” that may be eternal. After refocusing the debate over Mediterranean waters in the context of a global regime for water, this paper pleads for a local approach to the use of global norms in water management before focusing on innovations.