Integrated river basin management (IRBM) is recently fostered in the European Union mainly by two framework directives which were established in order to realise sustainable and effective river basin management and aiming for integrated approaches on a river basin scale. One is the water framework directive which objective is to assess water quality and achieve a good status for all water bodies. The other one is the flood risk management directive on the assessment and management of flood

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... . This paper discusses the potential synergies of the two directives against IRBM in general and describes European experts' views which were formulated as recommendations. The status of the water bodies and water governance system in Germany are described and critically reflected against the experts' recommendations. Potential methodological approaches which were developed and tested in German case studies are presented and discussed in the light of IRBM with focus on identifying and using crosssectoral synergies. The analysis reveals shortcomings in IRBM approaches in Germany and potentials for identification and use of synergies if certain framework, concept approaches and methodological approaches would be used.