20.500.12556/DiRROS-23322 Public participation in EU legislation? Recommendations for involving citizen scientists in anthropogenic litter research within the water framework directive Anthropogenic litter causes significant harm to the environment on a global scale. Achieving international agreements and es-tablishing corresponding national legislation is essential for solving this prevalent environmental problem. Effective monitoringprogrammes are also critical for evaluating the environmental status in aquatic (marine and freshwater) environments, as re-quired by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) in Europe. In contrastto the MSFD, the current version of the WFD does not yet include anthropogenic litter pollution as an indicator to evaluate thestatus of aquatic environments. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we recommend using existing litter data generated bycitizen science initiatives as a baseline to establish relevant indicators in the WFD. Further, citizen scientists could contribute tothe WFD by taking complimentary samples, for example, at underrepresented smaller streams, adding context and value to datacollected at established monitoring stations. The involvement of citizens as actors within an EU Directive would not only help toobtain valuable data on a significant spatial and temporal scale but could potentially also increase the environmental awarenessand political engagement of the public. The upcoming revision cycle of the WFD in 2028 presents a unique opportunity to givecitizens a voice and opportunity to partake in EU legislative frameworks. anthropogenic litter citizen science EU legislation participation plastic pollution Water Framework Directive (WFD) antropogeni odpadki občanska znanost sodelovanje pri zakonodaji EU onesnaževanje s plastiko Okvirna direktiva o vodah (ODV) true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik © 2025 The Author(s) Neznano 2025-08-18 08:59:11 2025-08-18 08:59:12 2025-10-24 03:54:05 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 18. 8. 2025; str. 1-10 no. 7 Vol. 35 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2025-07-21 504.5:349.6 1099-0755 10.1002/aqc.70192 245738499 25_08_18_101_245738499_Grego.pdf 25_08_18_101_245738499_Grego.pdf 1 AC45C59BD580603504B245F4C22768A8 0dfda2565b68e19855601393fdf6f6e082c1c961a5d0da716c68667833d8ab2b ff60da00-7c00-11f0-9bb7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=34448 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.70192 1 d989d36a-7c00-11f0-9bb7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=34447 Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper / Centro di Ricerche Scientifiche Capodistria 0 0 0