The Water Resilience Strategy adopted today by the European Commission is a long-awaited recognition of the growing water crisis and a welcome step towards a more integrated approach to sustainable water resources management in Europe.

It sets a clear political signal that water is a critical resource that needs to be protected, but its success will depend on turning words into action, on acknowledging that water resources protection is a shared responsibility, and on ensuring that all measures reconcile environmental sustainability, equity, and efficiency. 

We particularly welcome:

• The strong political acknowledgment that our water cycle is broken and needs urgent repair as a condition for sustainable water resources management.
• The establishment of a ‘Sponge Facility’ to improve water retention and the reaffirmation of the Water Framework Directive as the guiding compass for action.
• The recognition of the financial challenges facing the sector, including steps to mobilise EU funds and strengthen the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
• The adoption of an ‘Efficiency First’ principle, with a welcome focus on demand reduction, industrial integration, and on most intensive water users.
• The highlight put on pollution prevention and the implementation of the polluter pays principle for PFAS and other hazardous substances.
• The creation of a European Water Academy to address capacity needs in Europe’s water sector.
• The development of a Water Resilience R&I Strategy to address the fragmentation of EU R&I initiatives.
• The call for better monitoring of water availability through up-to-date water availability assessments and more transparent abstraction data.

However, some aspects of the Strategy fall short of meeting the challenges at stake or remain unclear to us: 

• There is a mismatch between the high level of ambition and the concrete measures proposed, in particular with regard to reducing pollution at source and curbing illegal water abstractions.
• The public-private initiative to achieve a technological breakthrough in methods for detection and remediation of PFAS and other persistent chemicals lacks clarity.
• The Strategy rightly highlights spatial planning and cross-border cooperation, but proposed actions are limited and risk being ineffective.
• While there is a strong emphasis on technological solutions, there is little clarity on how measures that are key to fixing the broken water cycle, such as nature interventions, will be financially supported.

We are finally concerned about the decision to conduct an updated study of costs of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme in the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and on its potential impacts on concerned sectors. This is likely to create legal and financial uncertainty, which could delay the rollout of quaternary treatment necessary to remove micropollutants and slow the timely implementation of the recast Directive.

Aqua Publica Europea’s members have been working for a long time to increase water resilience as demonstrated in our report Resilience in Action: Public Water Operators’ Strategies to Tackle Water Scarcity and Drought and remain committed to working with EU institutions as well as national, regional, and local authorities to ensure that the implementation of the Water Resilience Strategy delivers on its promises.