Albufeira Convention twenty-five years later: Spanish-Portuguese water diplomacy and multilevel governance in the face of climate change

Abstract

Objectives: This article briefly analyzes the 1998 Albufeira Convention –on cooperation for the protection of the Spanish-Portuguese basins –as well as the functioning of these cooperation bodies created to apply the Convention: analyze the more than 22 years of their effective operation and assess whether they have managed (or not) to adapt the AC to climate change, respecting the ecological flow required by the Water Framework Directive. Methodology: In this work, a review of all relevant legislation is carried out, at national (Spanish and Portuguese), international and EU level, especially previous works carried out by the author and other relevant documents Results: As a consequence of the centralization of “cooperation Madrid-Lisbon” and the lack of real public participation, the water demands of some Autonomous Communities and local communities are not being properly discussed, which makes cooperation difficult, raises some tensions and makes adaptation to the climate change of the Albufeira Convention difficult. Conclusions: The lack of authentic multilevel governance and public participation are two key aspects that should be promoted to boost Portuguese-Spanish cooperation in water matters, as well as to face the challenges of the climate change.