Conference Agenda

The European Union has called for stronger implementation of environmental policies, currently hindered by limited administrative capacity, weak enforcement, inadequate data, and delayed infrastructure. Recent findings from the European Environment Agency’s environmental status report of 2025 reinforce the urgency of improving compliance with EU environmental rules, pointing to persistent implementation gaps and widespread biodiversity decline across Europe, particularly in freshwater ecosystems.1 Environmental Compliance Assurance (ECA) – covering compliance promotion, monitoring, and enforcement – remains central to improving the environmental status in Europe and beyond, but traditionally relies on formal, top-down mechanisms.2 Given the increasing complexity of the environmental legal landscape, there is growing recognition of the need for complementary and collaborative approaches, notably citizen and community-led actions and citizen-generated data. These initiatives can enhance compliance with water-related obligations under instruments such as the Water Framework Directive, the Nature Restoration Regulation, and the Global Biodiversity Framework, while also contributing to biodiversity protection and zero pollution objectives in vulnerable freshwater ecosystems. Despite their potential, citizen science and collaborative initiatives remain marginal and uncertain, with EU policy frameworks offering limited support beyond provisions on access to documents, public participation, and access to justice. This session aims to explore both the challenges and opportunities for citizen science to assume a more central role in ECA, drawing insights from various examples from Europe, including Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy, and beyond, such as Sierra Leone and India.