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RESILIENCE IN ACTION - Towards a coordinated effort for a sustainable water resources management | Brussels, 14 February, 14:00-16:00

Belgium
14 February 2024 14:00–16:00

By bringing together representatives from national and international institutions, NGOs and water operators, the seminar aims to explore the conditions to strengthen our water resilience against climate change through a more coordinated societal effort.

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Aqua Publica Europea is pleased to invite you to our next public seminar:

Resilience in Action: Towards a Coordinated Effort for a Sustainable Water Resources Management

The event will take place in person in the European Parliament (room PHS7C50) in Brussels.


In recent years, Europe has increasingly witnessed how too much or too little water can threaten all aspects of social life and the economy. It is high time to intensify efforts to better manage the risks of extreme weather phenomena and the impact of climate change on our water resources. While the EU already has a robust and comprehensive water policy framework, the systemic nature of water resources management makes building resilience a complex endeavour. It requires improving long-term planning capacity, enhancing coordination across different sectors and stakeholders, addressing governance fragmentation, and streamlining water-related impact assessment across all policy areas. As water is a finite resource that cannot be ‘produced’, sustainable water resources management ultimately depends on the capacity of European societies to prioritise this goal politically in the framework of a democratic decision-making process. This is also an essential condition to mitigate the risks of growing conflicts between different water users and territories, both within Europe and beyond.

Whilst the European Commission is preparing a new communication on water resilience and Member States are working together with European institutions to elaborate new guidelines for managing the risk of water scarcity and droughts, this seminar aims to explore the conditions for improving our coordinated efforts towards the sustainable use of water resources. In this context, it also seeks to foster a dialogue among different stakeholders and levels of government to understand where responsibilities lie and what contributions each actor can provide to achieve this vision.

 

Agenda

 

13:00-14:00    Welcome lunch

14:00-14:05    Welcome address

Sandra Pereira – Member of the European Parliament

14:05-14:20    Keynote

Alain Maron – Brussels Minister for Climate Transition, the Environment, Energy, Social Action and Health

14:20-15:00    Session I - The governance of water resilience: Which ingredients?

Claire Baffert – Senior Water Policy Officer at WWF and Co-Author of the Report "Water for Nature, Water for Life: Adapting to Europe's Water Scarcity Challenge"

Sonja Koeppel – Secretary of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes

Luca Perez – Deputy Head of Unit for Sustainable Freshwater Management at the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment

Bernard Van Nuffel – President of Aqua Publica Europea, President of VIVAQUA and Deputy Mayor of the municipality of Jette

15:00-15:15    Coffee break

15:15-15:55    Session II - Financing water resilience: Towards a new economic model?

Marco Beroš – Lead Engineer at the European Investment Bank (EIB)

Aude Farnault – Coordinator of the OECD Roundtable on Financing Water

Andrea Guerrini – President of the Association of European Water Regulators (WAREG) and Commissioner of the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA) 

Roberto Mantovanelli – Vice-President of Aqua Publica Europea and President of Acque Veronesi

15:55-16:00    Conclusion

Anja Haga – Member of the European Parliament

The event will be moderated by Nuria Hernández-Mora, Board Member at Fundación Nueva Cultura del Agua (FNCA)

Registration

Registration for this event is now closed.

Programme and speakers