On Wednesday 4 June, the European Commission published its proposal for a European Water Resilience Strategy.
In line with the provisional document we shared on 15 May (see EUROPE 13641/9), the Water Resilience Strategy will pursue three objectives: - restoring the water cycle; - building a water-smart economy; - securing clean and affordable water for all.
“Water efficiency is our top priority. Europe should aim to achieve at least a 10% improvement in water efficiency by 2030”, said the European Commissioner for the Environment, Jessika Roswall on Wednesday. A figure that had not yet appeared in the leaked working versions.
In addition, because it is “urgent to modernise water infrastructures across Europe and step up investment”, thresholds for leakage levels in water supplies will be set by 2028, and Member States will have to present action plans to reduce them by 2030.
The emphasis is on digitalisation and innovation, which should make it possible to detect leaks, save water at home or anticipate shortages.
With this cross-sectoral strategy, the EU intends to enforce a series of existing laws. For example, the regulation on the reuse of water will have to be revised, and farmers will have to be encouraged to “improve their environmental and climatic performance” under the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
In the industrial sector, the Commission intends to “propose minimum performance standards including for water consumption” and plans to assess the sustainability of data centres, which will have to reduce their water consumption.
Housing and health are also mentioned. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive should improve the water resilience of buildings. In the health sector, the focus will be on developing wastewater monitoring infrastructures, since “water pollution has a direct impact on health”.
Although water pollution is mentioned in this strategy, it is not at the heart of it, even though it is stated that “access to clean water is essential” and that “pollution and contamination by PFAS are growing concerns”.
The Commission refers to the Zero Pollution Action Plan and states that it will be necessary to “clean up sites that are already strongly polluted”. This will have to be financed by those responsible, based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Sites where “no responsible party has been identified” will be cleaned up with public funding. The strategy does not set any targets for reducing pollution, but rather aims to “achieve a technological breakthrough (...) for the detection and remediation of PFAS and other persistent chemicals” through a public-private partnership.
Financing. The Commission had already mooted the creation of a “new water programme” within the European Investment Bank (EIB). Jessika Roswall said that €15 billion would be mobilised “over the next three years to increase loans for water projects”.
An investment accelerator for water resilience (2026-2027) will also be created and Member States will be encouraged to redirect cohesion funds towards water resilience as part of the mid-term review.
To see the strategy: https://aeur.eu/f/h63 (Original version in French by Florent Servia)