The 2000 EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) set a turning point in European water governance: mandated participatory planning substituted conventional top-down approaches, the ecology of aquatic environments became the WFD’s focal point, and the river-basin scale was institutionalized as the central governance unit. In 2007, the Floods Directive – a ‘daughter directive’ to the WFD – incorporated aspects of resilience through flood risk management. The two directives attempted a transition towards a sustainable and resilient water governance system; however, almost two decades later, it remains unclear whether the directives were instrumental in fostering such a transition. We report on several case studies in European water governance. These highlight the complexities of furthering change towards sustainability: institutional adaptation towards the new governance modes was slow and mandated participatory planning not instrumental for ground-breaking results. The European experience shows that adding more governance does not automatically bring about fundamental change.