Droughts prove EU’s water resilience urgently needs holistic strategy

As several EU member states are facing the impacts of drought conditions and the bloc’s water ecosystems are under pressure, experts have voiced the need for a “holistic approach” to increase Europe’s water resilience.

The impacts of climate change have left several EU member states facing increasingly challenging drought conditions.

Several parts of Spain have put in place emergency plans to save water amid some of the worst droughts recorded, whereas critically low water levels at the Danube River Basin are putting increasing pressure on its ecosystems – and the economy of the entire region.

The ongoing context has put a stronger focus on the EU’s water resilience and stewardship – yet, the European Commission in February decided to shelve the publication of its Water Resilience Initiative, largely because of protests from farmers across the bloc and calls from mainly right-wing forces to put a pause to the EU’s environmental requirements.

“The timing is wrong because the water stress across Europe is clear to everybody,” said Danish centre-right MEP Pernille Weiss, also a member of the European Parliament’s Water Group, at an event hosted by EURACTIV on March 20.

“Instead, it would have been better to communicate that it is actually [the purpose of the initiative is] to ease the stress that farmers and many industries and SMEs are facing going forward with the water stress in Europe,” she added.

The state of water

Despite criticism from several policymakers, NGOs, and even industry bodies, the European Commission says it is still working and putting attention to the topic of water resilience.

“We are working very hard on this topic, which I think is unanimously recognised, certainly inside our institution,” Veronica Manfredi, Director for Quality of Life at the Commission’s environment department, told the same event.

Manfredi added that the Commission is currently gathering data on the state of freshwaters and seas across Europe, and then would “consider further action.” She added the EU’s executive will dedicate its flagship ‘EU Green Week’ event to water resilience.

‘No green without blue’

Currently, the main legislation governing the EU’s water management is the Water Framework Directive, which since 2000 tackles water pollutants. However, implementation of this directive remains poorly implemented in several parts of Europe.

“We have the basic tools, but they are not being properly implemented and enforced,” said Andreas Beckmann, Regional CEO at WWF Central & Eastern Europe.

“[The Water Framework Directive] is pioneering, it is far-reaching […], we just need to implement it, we just need to enforce it, that we have that, and we need them to push that forward with a Climate and Water Resilience Law,” he told the same event.

An idea that has been floating for a long is the idea of a ‘Blue Deal’ that would complement the European Green Deal. Pietro de Lotto, the President of the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change at the European Economic and Social Committee, was among the first proponents of such a Blue Deal.

“A cross-cutting approach on water could be effective and useful,” said De Lotto.

“If we block it in a silo, as a chapter, it will not work. It will not work because it will be perceived as another constraint and another burden. I’m talking about farmers and industries, more than 70% of water consumption in Europe. We must have them onboard and to work with them,” he added.

“A horizontal approach to the existing legal frameworks and tools would be wonderful to put into a Blue Deal,” said MEP Weiss. “[It could] work a lot more on the investment side, and to articulate what we can win for European society and our economy.”

“There is no green without blue,” she added.

Public-private partnerships

EU member states have continuously identified financing as one of the main bottlenecks to implementing the bloc’s water legislation since public financing alone cannot support climate adaptation measures.

“However much public money we will be able to put, it will never be enough,” said the Commission’s Manfredi. “We’re talking about a topic that clearly needs an alliance between public and private operators.”

Wouter Vermeulen, VP for Sustainability & Public Policy at Coca-Cola in Europe, explained the role that the private sector has played in collaboration with WWF, an “unlikely bedfellow”, to restore the ecosystems at the Danube River Basin. “[The initiative] has tangibly and meaningfully improved nature, brought biodiversity back, and also actually got support from farmers and local communities.”

The Coca-Cola Foundation invested €4.5 million in this project, which helped unlock additional public and private sector investments. “Without that initial funding, we wouldn’t have had any additional funding,” said WWF’s Beckmann.

“It’s a matter of implementing legislation, but also a method of implementing and scaling up solutions and unlocking the finance needed to get us there,” Vermeulen told the EURACTIV event, which was supported by Coca-Cola in Europe.

This article follows the Euractiv-organised policy debate “Securing water for tomorrow – What course should the EU take?” supported by Coca-Cola in Europe.

By Anna Gumbau Martínez I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]

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