 outlined in Sections 2 and 3 are taken as providing a baseline against which the possible impacts are judged. Potential future drivers that would have an impact on the demand for and configuration of future water services have been outlined in Section 4. Only the most important of these are considered below. Geopolitics Beyond the Nation State There are already a number of trans-national organisations that exert varying degrees of influence over the provision of water services at the level of the state and below, such as the World Bank and its affiliates, the WTO, UN bodies, INGOs, the EU and, to a lesser but potentially increasingly important extent, TNCs and/or MNCs (multinational corporations). Of these, the WTO and EU stand out in their ability to set standards, require compliance, take forms of legal action and impose penalties for breaches. Globally it has become apparent that as trade negotiations and frameworks have developed, there has been a greater sensitivity to domestic regulations that relate, among other things, to environmental matters (Oye, 2005). There is a growing potential for conflict due to both increasing trade sensitivity to regulatory difference and increasing uncertainty about the environmental risks being regulated. This is exemplified by regulations that actually advance parochial interests while claiming to target holistic environmental and health protection. In this respect there are perceptions that the stance taken by Europe and that taken by the United States are at odds (Oye, 2005). INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 5. THE IMPACTS OF CHANGE ON THE LONG-TERM FUTURE DEMAND FOR WATER SECTOR INFRASTRUCTURE The EU exerts an "arm's length" and overarching influence on water services, not just in the member and accession states but also in countries such as Turkey, Russia and other EECCA states that seek closer economic and political ties as well as trade suppliers from around the world. It is in the area of environm