EU launches water strategy: efficiency, investment, and innovation against scarcity and pollution

Brussels – A Europe capable of withstanding future water shocks, but also of rebuilding its relationship with water, starting with efficiency, investment, governance, and cooperation. This is the aim of the first Strategy for Water Resilience, adopted today (4 June) by the European Commission and presented by Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera, responsible for Competitive Transition, and Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall.

Over the last decade, the number of Europeans affected by water scarcity has nearly doubled, while around 30 per cent of the EU’s territory experiences drought conditions annually. But it is the entire water cycle that is under pressure: too many leaks, too much pollution, too little attention to a commodity that, Ribera recalled, “is not infinite, nor free, nor always clean.” The Commission’s strategy focuses on five priorities: restoring the water cycle, building a ‘water smart’ economy, ensuring clean and accessible water for all, accelerating innovation and improving governance. The political message is clear: water security is no longer just an environmental issue, but a fundamental condition for competitiveness, public health, and economic stability in the Union.

“Water is life. Without water, nothing works,” stressed Ribera. Yet, 2.2 billion people in the world still lack access to safe sources, and almost half of domestic wastewater remains untreated. Even Europe, the fastest-warming continent, is not immune. Images of floods in Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, and Spain coexist with fields scorched by the drought, while in some regions up to 30 per cent of water is lost down the pipes. For these reasons, the operational core of the strategy consists of more than 30 key actions, articulated along the broad lines of climate adaptation and industrial innovation. By 2030, the EU aims to increase water efficiency in all sectors by at least 10 per cent, but without imposing uniform targets: “There is no one-size-fits-all model,” said Roswall, “the needs of people living in very wet or very dry regions are different, but everyone has to play their part.

On the financial front, the commitment is concrete. The European Investment Bank will mobilise €15 billion over the next three years to support projects in the water sector. However, the European executive urges the Member States to do more: to make the best use of the EU funds already available and accelerate investments in infrastructure, digitisation and prevention. Another key issue is governance. “The rules are there, but they are often not applied,” recalled Roswall. That is why the Commission will strengthen the dialogue with Member States to improve monitoring, identify risks, and facilitate cross-border cooperation. Waters do not stop at national borders, and neither can solutions. The strategy also addresses the burning issue of PFAS pollution, the so-called ‘eternal pollutants’, which are increasingly the focus of public attention. Brussels intends to launch a public-private partnership to develop technologies capable of detecting and cleaning up this type of contamination, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

However, in addition to technology, there is a need for cultural change. “The strategy is not just a set of measures. It is a change of mentality,” said Ribera. The idea is to make water resilience a transversal pillar of all European policies: from agriculture to energy, from industry to digital services, from health to cohesion. Cooperation, innovation, nature: these are the key words of the new European approach. Water is a natural infrastructure to be protected, a common good to be managed collectively, and a global challenge to be tackled together. “It is not someone else’s problem,” Ribera concluded, “it is ours. And acting now is much cheaper than doing nothing.”

We have taken water for granted for too long.

With the EU Water Resilience Strategy we aim to: fix our broken water cycle ♻️ become a water-smart economy ensure clean & affordable water and sanitation for everybody More https://t.co/i9lYCt0lGb Let’s be a #WaterWiseEU pic.twitter.com/wclSP1jFGW — EU Environment (@EU_ENV) June 4, 2025

English version by the Translation Service of Withub