The legislative proposal on water resilience to ensure sustainable water management, combat water shortages and guarantee access to drinking water as a human right will be the European Commission’s last environmental initiative before the European elections in June.
This European Green Deal initiative, guided by the UN’s Agenda 2030, was announced for the first quarter of 2024. It does not appear in the Commission’s provisional indicative timetable of 11 December, which ends at the end of February, but it will be presented, an official from the institution confirmed to EUROPE, without giving a date.
However, it is likely that the text will be proposed in the summer, following the publication of “the very first European climate risk assessment, which will take place in the spring of 2024 and will remind us of the need to act in accordance with the EU’s adaptation strategy”, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, pointed out in October, when unveiling this initiative (see EUROPE 13274/18).
Key elements involve integrating water efficiency and protection into the practices of major water users in sectors such as energy, agriculture, industry and transport, applying the water pricing provided for in the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and increasing EU investment in water and sanitation.
The Belgian Presidency of the EU Council has already announced its intention to promote sustainable water management (see EUROPE 13320/8).
The Commission’s proposal will follow on from the United Nations Water Conference (22-24 March 2023) which, at the halfway point of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighted the need for action to preserve a vital natural resource that is depleted, polluted and poorly managed, to invest in infrastructure and to accelerate progress towards universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2030 (SDG 6) – a conference welcomed by EU leaders at their spring summit. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)