With over three-quarters of Europeans calling for stronger EU action on water, the European Commission has released today its long-awaited European Water Resilience Strategy, a decisive step to secure Europe’s water future. Water Europe welcomes the strategy as a landmark acknowledgment that water is no longer a peripheral environmental issue but a central pillar of Europe’s future.
As climate shocks, pollution, and water scarcity intensify across the continent, the strategy sets a clear course: repair Europe’s broken water cycle, build a Water-Smart Economy, and guarantee clean, affordable water for all Europeans. This Strategy (EU Commission, 2025) reflects a growing understanding among EU institutions and Member States that resilient water management is foundational to our competitiveness and wellbeing.
The publication of this strategy is not the beginning, but the culmination of four years of work by the Water Europe’s community, who have advocated, co-created, and mobilised political momentum to make this vision a reality. Since the publication of its position on the EU Blue Deal or its Manifesto for the EU elections in 2024, Water Europe has:
- Actively contributed to the positions of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC, 2023) and the Committee of the Regions on the EU Blue Deal (CoR, 2024 & 2024).
- Collaborated closely with Members of the European Parliament, notably the MEP Water Group, to build broad political alignment for a European water agenda.
- Joined forces in a coalition of 30+ organisations to urge the Commission to maintain its commitment to water resilience in march 2024 (Joint Letter, 2024).
These are all aligned with our objective to build a Water-Smart Society in Europe (Water Europe, 2023), where water is managed in a way that ensures security, sustainability, and resilience. We particularly welcome the economic dimension of a Water-Smart Society as Water Europe led the debate on the socio-economic value of investing in water for Europe (Water Europe, 2024).
- Critical industries – hydrogen, batteries, semiconductors, and data centres – are projected to triple their water consumption by 2030, growing from €192 billion today to nearly €1 trillion.
- With 29% of the EU’s territory already experiencing water scarcity, this poses a serious threat on our competitiveness and strategy autonomy (EEA, 2019).
- Europe’s water infrastructure is also under pressure. Meeting existing EU water legislation alone requires at least €255 billion in investment to ensure water and sanitation for our society (Water Europe, 2024).
A Water-Smart Economy should be understood as the economic dimension of a Water-Smart Society. It operationalises the societal vision by embedding the value of water into how we grow, produce, invest and innovate. Together, a Water-Smart Economy and Society represent a holistic model where social equity, environmental integrity and economic vitality are interdependent drivers of water resilience. (Water Europe, 2025).
The Strategy takes an important step forward by recognising the transformative potential of digitalisation, water efficiency, reuse, public procurement, and research & innovation. We particularly welcome the launch of a Digitalisation Action Plan, aimed at ensuring data transparency, interoperability, and harmonised methodologies across Europe. While many solutions already exist in Europe, further research is needed, especially to address contaminants of emerging concern, such as disinfection by-products in drinking water and PFAS.
Water Europe reaffirms its readiness to support the Commission, Member States, and local actors in translating the Water Resilience Strategy into tangible progress for citizens, ecosystems, and economic actors. Download the Strategy here.
