European Water resilience Strategy

Published on by in Government

European Water resilience Strategy

Brussels, 4.6.2025 COM(2025) 280 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

EN European Water Resilience Strategy - see attached

1. INTRODUCTION – SETTING THE SCENE

Water is life. Human beings, most species and the nature we live in and depend upon, cannot survive without water. Our environment, our economy, our food and energy security and our quality of life rely on a stable supply of water of the right quality.

However, today we can no longer take water for granted, and this affects citizens, businesses and the environment. Europe is the Earth’s fastest warming continent due to climate change. Climate impacts like extreme heat, catastrophic floods, prolonged droughts and forest fires are increasing in frequency and severity and will continue to do so. These events cause health impacts and premature deaths, disruption of energy and drinking water supply and growing economic losses 1 for business, farmers and aquaculture. If left unaddressed, waterrelated inequalities have the potential to harm the overall economic, social and territorial cohesion of the EU 2 and globally. This is especially true for the EU’s outermost regions, where climate pressures and infrastructure gaps make access to clean and safe water particularly challenging. Access to clean and affordable water is a human right and a public good.

Water resilience is a matter of security and crisis preparedness for the EU. Water is a basic need and a critical resource. As outlined in the Preparedness Union Strategy, security of clean and affordable freshwater supply must be “a guiding priority” for the Union.3 

Investing in sustainable water management and innovation will strengthen Europe's businesses and boost competitiveness. Five of the top ten long term global risks for businesses identified by the World Economic Forum 4 are water related. Unsustainable water management undermines our overall security of supply and competitiveness, as recognised in the Competitiveness Compass 5 and the Clean Industrial Deal6 . This calls for a better integration of water resilience into business decisions and an integrated vision of sustainable water management, reflecting long term climate scenarios.

Water resilience is a significant business opportunity for EU industry. Europe is a global leader in water technology, accounting for 40% of all related patents globally. 7 In 2022 alone, the sector generated EUR 111.7 billion in value added and supported 1.6 million jobs across

Droughts have caused extraordinary losses of around EUR 40 billion in 2022 alone. Floods caused, between 1980 and 2023, losses of EUR 325 billion. Adding to these challenges, water pollution generates costs ranging from EUR 55 billion to EUR 73 billion. See Commission study on cost of inaction, in the context of the upcoming Environmental Implementation Review.

Ninth Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion, Chapter 4 'Green Transition', 2024 (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information-sources/cohesion-report_en).

European Union Preparedness Union Strategy, JOIN(2025) 130 final.

“Global Risks Report 2024” These five top global, also water-related risks are: 1) Extreme Weather events, 2) Critical Change to Earth Systems, 3) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, 4) Natural resources shortages and 5) Pollution https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/.

COM (2025) 30 final A Competitiveness Compass for the EU.

COM(2025) 85 final The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation. European Patent Office, “Innovation in water-related technologies” (July 2024), available here.

1 81 500 enterprises, most of which are SMEs8 . We must leverage this position and strengthen the EU’s competitive advantage within the Single Market and abroad. For instance, within certain sectors, there is the potential to lower water and operating costs by up to EUR 2.8 billion per year, create an additional 9 000 jobs per year, while at the same time developing necessary worldwide expertise9 .

Strong European global leadership on water resilience is an opportunity to build strategic alliances with international partners. Worldwide competition for dwindling supplies of freshwater exacerbates conflict and displacement. At the current pace, global water demand will surpass what is available by 40% in 203010 . Worldwide, water-related disasters displaced 40 million people and inflicted more than EUR 480 billion in damages in 2024. 11 Building on the global consensus 12 that our current model of managing water is not sustainable, the EU is determined to make the upcoming 2026 UN Water Conference a milestone in driving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

For all these reasons, it is high time to put water resilience at the top of the political agenda as conveyed by the European Council13 , European Parliament 14 and European Economic and Social Committee15 . This is why, in her 2024-2029 Political Guidelines, President von der Leyen announced a new European Water Resilience Strategy. This should help all parts of the EU to improve the management of its waterbodies, tackle scarcity, enhance the competitive innovative edge of the water industry16 , whilst embracing a clean and circular approach.

Member States have organised their water management in different ways, involving various forms of public or private ownership, or a combination of the two. This Strategy fully respects these national choices and recognises that one size does not fit all, in particular taking into account that water availability varies considerably between different Member States as does the vulnerability of different sectors to water stress.

2.

THE KEY OBJECTIVES

This Strategy sets out a pathway to make Europe water resilient, firmly rooted in the 2050 vision put forward by the EU at the 2023 UN Water Conference for a water resilient EU, providing water security for all. This entails the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and a fair balance between water supply and water demand responding to current needs, including the realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, without compromising the rights of future generations.

To put Europe on a pathway of water resilience, we must work on three objectives:

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