EC Commission refers Bulgaria to the EU Court of Justice for failing to protect and manage its Natura 2000 sites
On November 12th, European Commission has decided to refer Bulgaria to the Court of Justice of the European Union for not respecting its obligations under the Habitats Directive.
The European Green Deal and the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 set the objective for the EU to halt biodiversity loss by preserving its natural sites and restoring damaged ecosystems to good ecological status.
Bulgaria has not yet designated 194 out of 229 Sites of Community Importance as Special Areas of Conservation within the required time limit and has generally and persistently failed to set site-specific conservation objectives and measures for these sites. These are key requirements to protect biodiversity across the EU.
Read MoreCassandra Conference 2021: Join online on 15-17 November
EURECAT, Water Europe member, organises the CASSANDRA Conference from 15 to 17 November 2021, seeking to address the dramatic consequences of climate change on migration, health, conflict and gender in the Mediterranean.
The conference intends to establish permanent synergies between the world of science and technology with the most important social and political realities of this century. This online event will gather experts from United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, and the European Parliament among others, in order to offer their visions and interact with the audience.
Water Europe will play an active role in the conference with Durk Krol, Water Europe Director speaking at the session ‘Science and social consensus in the Mediterranean’ that will delve into the ways the Mediterranean Region can be established as a leader in science and technology on the 17th of November at 14h00pm and Andrea Rubini, Director of Operations moderating the session on ‘Climate change, health and migration’ on the 15th of November at 12h30.
The registration is free for the conference and those who register will be given access to the whole event so that they can then pick and choose the panels they wish to attend. To learn more about the programme of the event and how to join, click here.
Read MoreTomas Michel, President’s Editorial
Dear Water Europe family,
The Water Europe Board convened in Athens two weeks ago. It has been a too long time since our board members have not had the chance to meet in person, discuss and exchange views. We had almost become used to convene over the screen. In this lovely and hospital city, the meeting was this time a completely different and rewarding experience. Among the key topics of our agenda were the WE Membership Customer Journey, the renewal of our Vision Leadership Teams (VLTs) for the term 2021-2023, as well as the new Working Groups’ structure that will be put in place for the period 2021-2024.
The long-excluded possibility for coming together and exchanging in person is now also just around the corner for our members on the occasion of Water Knowledge Europe 2021, coming up in less than 10 days.
Water Europe has carried out an analysis of the Horizon Europe work-programme 2021-2022 to identify the water-related calls for proposals and offer the opportunity to WE members and all the event’s participants to get prepared to develop robust and successful project ideas. The analysis produced a set of documents – one for each cluster of the Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – that highlights the selected calls for year 2022 and explain the rationale of the calls through the “Destinations” of the work-programmes of each cluster.
The Water Knowledge Europe 2021 autumn edition will be a hybrid event, allowing those who can attend physically to enjoy the event’s plenary sessions and the networking dinner but also giving the opportunity to the ones joining online to participate in the B2B meetings and the Working Groups sessions. On the other side of this hybrid experience, from the 8th to the 16th of November, all our Working Groups will host their meetings online, enabling its members to join remotely no matter where they are.
Concerning our advocacy tier, Water Europe is releasing a position paper titled ‘Addressing Pollutants of Surface and Ground Water’. Water Europe shares the concern about the presence of pharmaceuticals, microplastics, pesticides, industrial chemicals, (heavy) metals and other substances in European polluting surface and groundwater bodies. In support of the objective to “protect the aquatic environment and human health from chemical pollution through achieving good surface water”, Water Europe encourages upgrading the list of priority substances for surface and groundwater as follows to generate new economic, social & health and environmental benefits. Read the full position paper here.
We do not only need to be proactive and efficient, we also need to communicate about our actions and results. To make accessible and understandable to everyone the advocacy work done within Water Europe, we have launched a new series of videos ‘It’s time to be Water-Smart’ with the first video dedicated to the Textile strategy. If you wish to get informed on the water challenges, the recommendations that Water Europe brings forward, and how you can contribute, you need to subscribe to our channel. Watch here our first video.
Read MoreInterview with Claudia Topalli, Water Europe board member of College D, Suppliers & SMEs
You were recently elected as Water Europe board member of college D ‘Suppliers & SMEs’- Could you tell us what drives you personally to have this role at Water Europe? What do you want to achieve?
It is my pleasure and honour to be a board member of Water Europe, I am very grateful to all my college D colleagues that trusted me with their vote. I would like to bring forward several topics that we prioritized in the working group Water and Health where I was leader. It is a key priority to make public health an important element in EU water-related policies and boost the R&I methodology to contribute to the achievement of a Water Smart Society in which the value of water is recognized and protected as a precious resource for human health and well-being.
Representing the solutions providers at Water Europe, which ones do you consider the key challenges and the most burning needs of this college and how do you contribute to addressing these in the context of Water Europe?
As a new member of college D and former leader and co-founder of the working Group Water and public health, I would certainly bring forward Health, since Health is a horizontal topic that relates to many policy areas. Coordination with other working groups and colleges is vital to have a holistic approach. Another challenge is the market access requirements in Europe for the water sector, it is important to have the same and transparent European requirements for products in every Member State which would mean less administrative burden, lower costs for solution providers and most important availability of innovative solutions in across Europe.
Encouraging innovation in the water sector is vital. How important do you consider the role of SMEs in this regard and what are the existing opportunities for the uptake of their innovations to the next level both inside and outside of Europe?
The European Water sector includes a large number of players, including 9,000 SMEs, due to their proximity to local communities and the deep knowledge of their specific needs and challenges, the role of SMEs and solution providers is key to innovation. Funding opportunities, together with policy coordination, as well as administrative support, is vital for this important market challenge at a European and mostly at a global level.
Based on our vision, Water Europe aims to build a Water-Smart Society. From your point of view, which actions shall we put forward to make this happen and how could the solution providers contribute to that?
The European and Global water challenges that are naturally linked to Sustainable Development Goals would need an integrated approach in research, innovation, investment and policy objectives. WE should promote research that focuses on the protection of water natural water resources and boosts the European water market as well as the global competitiveness of European water industries. Solution providers are part of the answer by providing innovative market solutions that contribute to the achievement of these challenging objectives and it is important to create a bridge between the market and administrative requirements so that innovative water technologies can reach the market in a reasonable amount of time.
Read MoreRecognizing the value of water starts with clean water bodies – Water Europe releases Position Paper on addressing pollutants in surface and groundwater
The Water Framework Directive aims to ensure that all surface water and groundwater bodies achieve “good status”. From the 26th of July until the 1st of November, the European Commission opened a public consultation to review the list of pollutants affecting surface- and groundwaters and the corresponding regulatory standards in the Priority Substances Directive (PSD) and Groundwater Directive (GWD).
Within this framework and despite improvements in legislation, governance and investment, European waters continue to face a wide range of significant pressures, including pollution, alterations to their surrounding physical landscape, water scarcity and floods with a direct impact on the environment and biodiversity. To tackle these pressures, reduce substances in surface and groundwater bodies and move towards a Water-Smart-Society, WE has identified challenges in which immediate action would lead to substantial benefits for society and health, environment, and economy.
The importance of these challenges and starting point to address them were stressed in Water Europe answers to the public consultation and concluded in a position paper. Download it here.
Read MoreTransformAr project kicked-off: Accelerating and Upscaling transformational adaptation in Europe
TransformAr project officially kicked off on the 14 and 15 of October 2021. Bringing together 22 partners from 11 different countries, the TransformAr project, funded by the European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation programme, aims to develop and demonstrate pathways, products and services to launch and accelerate large-scale and disruptive adaptive processes for transformational adaptation in vulnerable regions and communities across Europe.
All the six lighthouse demonstrators of TransformAr face challenges related to water risks and climate change impacts. Massive resilience increase and acceleration of transformational adaptation will be fostered by clustering various investors, testing bankable solutions, and defining viable commercial exploitation strategies for the TransformAr solutions.
During its hybrid kick-off meeting, the TransformAr project consortium, led by the University of Antwerp, was happy to meet and discuss activities to be carried out throughout the upcoming four years. To follow the project’s developments, please check its social media channels : Twitter and LinkedIn.
Read MoreDigital Action & Climate Action: 8 ideas to accelerate the twin transition
Studies have found that by 2030, digital technologies have the potential to help other industries save 20% of global CO2emissions. As such, we need to take actions to counter the global existential threat of climate change and to promote a green economic recovery.
Amid the COP26, DIGITAL EUROPE has recently launched the report Digital Action, Climate Action, 8 ideas to accelerate the twin transition to show how through 22 case studies, it outlines 8 recommendations for EU policymakers to accelerate this potential.
We identified 3 water-related elements in the agricultural part:
1. Advanced monitoring of livestock health and growth enables dedicated administering of fertilisers or food supplements, optimising and conservation of water resources, avoiding spillage and pollution, achieving energy savings.
2. The global population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050. We need to feed more people more sustainably. One of the ways to do that is by increasing the efficiency of our food production through smart agriculture. One element of that is precision farming, using technology such as wireless remote monitoring private networks, digital sensors, and AI-based analytics to minimise pesticide fertilizer and water usage and maximise yields. Studies have found that IoT can help drive higher yields (2%-13% improvements) in crop agriculture.
3. The World Economic Forum estimates that, if 15-25% of farms adopted precision agriculture, global yield could be increased by 10-15% by 2030, while greenhouse gas emissions and water use could be reduced by 10% and 20%, respectively. While these are small steps in a global scale, food systems are currently responsible for 20 to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of biodiversity loss. Smart agriculture could kickstart the digital transformation of the entire food industry.
Read MoreRegister for the Cassandra conference to learn solution on climate change & socio-political issues in the Mediterranean – Nov.15/17
A new Mediterranean Renaissance? As climate change, health and migration hit the Mediterranean countries, the Cassandra Conference coming up on Nov. 15-17 will aim at rethinking new and innovative approaches to address environmental and societal issues across the Mediterranean countries.
What are the objectives of the Conference?
✔ To demonstrate the latest technological and scientific advances which can provide solutions and progress regarding the pathway of Climate Change and Health, Migration, Conflict and Gender Inequality, both separately and as a whole, contributing to proactive planning and policy co-creation that will be essential to mitigate the potential impacts on health resulting from climate change, leading potentially to migration, conflict and the exasperation of the secondary status of women throughout the Mediterranean region.
✔ To establish the interrelation between the issues of Climate Change, Migration, Conflict and Gender Inequality, the political and social consequences of these issues and the subsequent defence of human rights.
✔ To encourage a global approach to the identified challenges employing Technology, Art and Policy whilst promoting inter-sectoral collaboration, recognition, engagement, empathy and dialogue. This is known as Science-Art-Sustainability Diplomacy.
✔ To establish the Mediterranean Region as a leader in science and technology addressing the relationship between Climate Change and Health, Migration, Conflict and Gender Inequality.
✔ To publish the considerations of the conference in a book which will be disseminated on open-source platforms.
If you are interested in joining the Conference, check out the official website and secure your place here.
Read MoreNew EC reports on ‘Current practice in Floods Risk Management’ released
The EC has recently released a report on ‘Current Practice in Flood Risk Management in the European Union’, with the support of Royal Haskonning DHV on the 29th of September. Three major recommendations are resulting from the report:
1. Taking better account of climate change through improved communication of its impacts and guidance on application for future FRM and land use management planning and delivery.
2. Improved use of anticipatory FRM through adaptive approaches and pathways, in light of uncertainties in future flood risk due to changes in socio-economic development as well as the climate.
3. Development, sharing and embedding of more appropriate processes, methods, and tools for engaging and communicating with the general public and public groups about flood hazard and risk and improving their inclusion in the development and delivery of FRM measures.
Read MoreWater Europe joins the Ecomondo 2021 event to contribute for a leading ecological transition
Today, Water Europe co-chaired Ecomondo 2021, the benchmark event in Europe for technological and industrial innovation. The event, held on 26-29 October 2021, brings together all sectors of the circular economy to help companies become world leaders in innovation, promoting the development of an innovative and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Our Director of Operations, Andrea Rubini co-hosted the “European Horizon2020 systemic actions for water-smart circular cities, regions and industries” session, held today at 10:00 – 13:00. The focus of the workshop revolved around the promotion of living lab gathering several local and territorial innovative case studies.
Water is transversal in systemic strategies for circular transition and sustainable development of cities, regions, industries and communities. Green, grey and digital solutions, combined with proper governance and business approaches are being developed in Horizon2020 Innovation Actions and can make a crucial socio-economic impact towards the Green Deal objectives.
A variety of ongoing EU-funded projects took the floor during the Workshop to present their outstanding work and objectives and offering interesting solutions within the topic. The Water Europe’s projects that joined the session were: AquaSPICE, B-Water Smart, HYDROUSA, and NextGen Water.
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