The first United Nations Water conference for 46 years has just concluded, reminding us of the need to take action now. This challenge opens a wide range of opportunities for the whole society while making more and more pressing the required investment in resilient infrastructure. Everybody has a role to play, and Europe is not exempt from this task.

During the last years, the EU institutions have been deploying the Green Deal to create a paradigm shift towards a green, resilient, and digitalised Europe. Despite positive developments in the EU legislation, such as the Zero Pollution Strategy, the legislative proposal of the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, water-related risks have been underestimated and managed with a fragmented perspective. Europe must go further!

As we approach the end of this Commission’s mandate, it’s time to raise the following question: What’s next? We believe that Europe must not close the Green Deal chapter but open a second one for a Water-Smart Strategy which will put water – the main natural resource of our society, economy, and environment – at the heart of the next Commission’s programme.

Water Innovation Europe aims at shaping the European water-related future by offering new perspectives and insights from high-level EU decision-makers and experts of the water sector and bringing forward the latest updates and trends on new water technologies and innovations.