Recognising both the risks and opportunities associated with water, the European Commission has placed water at the core of its new political cycle. In the EU and globally, water is increasingly becoming a challenge but also a key lever for strengthening economic resilience in changing times. These circumstances stem from both observed alterations in the hydrological cycle due to climate change and to the mounting geopolitical tensions that add further pressure on multilateral agreements.
(…) water is increasingly becoming a challenge but also a key lever for strengthening economic resilience in changing times.
The World Water Day (22 March), celebrated annually since 1993, helps to underscore the fundamental role of this liquid gold in life, health, the economy and ecosystems. The day serves as a reminder of the global water crisis and the pressing need for effective measures to reinforce water resilience.[1]
Europe is the fastest warming continent, experiencing tangible costs in terms of damages from extreme events. In 2022 the widespread drought and heatwaves across Europe caused losses of up to €40 billion. Just a year earlier, the floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands resulted in an estimated €44 billion in damages. The trend continued in 2024, with three of the 10 most expensive disasters worldwide occurring in Europe. Spain, in particular, has been severely affected –its drought in 2023, ranked as the 9th most costly global disaster of the year, led to an estimated €2.1 billion in losses–. In 2024 the floods in Valencia were the most expensive single event in the 70-year history of Spain’s public insurance company, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros. Is this the new normal?
The shift is symptomatic of a changing risk-landscape but also of structural characteristics that can and should be addressed. According to the European Environmental Agency (EEA), 20% of Europe’s territory is experiencing water scarcity, affecting 30% of the population. At the global scale, these numbers are even higher, with 40% of the world’s people affected by water scarcity and 90% of disasters being water-related.
On 6 March 2025 the EU hosted a stakeholder event to gather inputs from experts for the upcoming European Water Resilience Strategy (EWRS), to be launched later in the year. The strategy aims to make the EU water-resilient by 2030 or 2040, by developing a multisectoral plan guided by three main objectives, as outlined in von der Leyen’s political guidelines for the 2024-29 Commission: (a) to ensure water sources are properly managed; (b) to address scarcity; and (c) to strengthen the competitiveness and innovative edge of the EU’s water sector while promoting a circular economy approach.
1. The first objective
The first objective planned in the EWRS is to protect and restore the broken water cycle, recognising the multifunctional nature of water resilience, that must cover the full water cycle. This includes, for instance, green water resilience, based on sound land-use management. Yet freshwater ecosystems in Europe –as in the rest of the world– are severely degraded, with further deterioration expected due to climate change. Policies like the Nature Restoration Law and the Biodiversity Strategy, as well as the Adaptation Strategy, call on Member States to prioritise the deployment of large scale Nature-based Solutions. This would enhance nature recovery and ecosystem restoration, while simultaneously improving water retention and helping to slow the flow. Biodiversity recovery is currently supported with at least 7.5% annual spending and 10% in both 2026 and 2027 (non-binding targets) in the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The EU already has a substantial regulatory framework in place for water management, yet enforcement gaps persist. The focus is therefore shifting towards implementation, with little appetite for new legislation, except perhaps for the establishment of new EU-wide water quality standards and guidelines, for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or so called ‘forever chemicals’. In other words, the existing EU Water policy framework ‘is […] poorly implemented, underfunded and barely enforced’. It is more a case of ensuring the implementation and enforcement of the comprehensive water acquis communautaire and, in particular, on the zero pollution legislation. Public concern is evident: according to the latest environment Eurobarometer survey in 2024, up to 78% of Europeans consider that the EU should propose additional measures to address water-related problems, with pollution (21%), overconsumption and wasting water (17%), and climate change (16%) ranking as major threats.
The results of a recent survey conducted by the Elcano Royal Institute[2] highlight a significant level of public concern regarding water issues in Spain. On an 11-point Likert scale from 0 to 10, 60% of respondents rated their concern at 7 or higher. In scenarios of water scarcity, many respondents showed an openness to using non-conventional water sources, such as desalinated and reclaimed water, for specific purposes. However, acceptance declines with direct contact: while 82% would be willing to use reclaimed water for agriculture, only 25% would feel comfortable drinking it. By contrast, desalinated water enjoys greater acceptance, with 87% willing to use it for agriculture and 43% for drinking.
Addressing water pollution is closely linked to EU competitiveness as it offers a dual benefit: recovering nutrients and pesticides while reducing their input in the aquatic environment, thus minimising potential clean-up costs and further damaging scarce resources. The Zero Pollution Action Plan set ambitious objectives to reduce nutrient losses and pesticide risks by 50% (respectively) by 2030 with the implementation of the Nitrates Directive and the Sustainable use of Pesticide Directive, including the stronger enforcement of, eg, a series of pesticide regulations. This is linked to the recently published EU vision on agriculture that acknowledges the heavy reliance on water from agriculture, which is the largest net water consumer (59%) by crops or evaporation, and the importance of a steady and safe supply of water that is vulnerable and exposed to climatic hazards. This is further aggravated by climate change, especially in Southern Europe, as in Spain.
2. The second objective
The second objective focuses primarily on water efficiency, in balance with water resilience. The concept of ‘water efficiency first’ is introduced and supported by stakeholders, similarly to the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle already in place. One of the demands from different stakeholders, like Water Europe, is a Water Transition Fund to accelerate the deployment of water smart technologies and to optimise water infrastructure on similar lines to what RePowerEU did for energy. Additionally, there are requests for more targeted funding and investment for different stakeholders (farmers, industrial actors, investors, property developers and builders, and regional and local authorities with public-private partnerships). The call for a transition fund mirrors the call for the EP to create a separate dedicated fund with a single EU access point for water resilience within the upcoming MFF, directly targeted towards water resilience measures. The EP itself has called for the setting up of binding sectoral water efficiency targets and water abstraction levels at basin scale based on an up-to-date assessment of climate risks and recovery for all water users.
Pricing is a crucial instrument for water management. The EP calls on Member States and regional authorities to implement adequate water pricing policies and to fully enforce cost-recovery principles for both environmental and resource costs. Meanwhile, the EEA underscores the dual role of pricing: as a signal that, when affordability concerns are duly considered, it can incentivise water efficiency and be a mechanism to generate financial resources that could be earmarked for water-related investments. Yet ‘currently none of the legislation or policy at the EU level set quantitative targets for water savings or water demand reduction’.
Spain, compared with other European countries, has significantly low urban water tariffs –45% below the European average–, where the cost-recovery principle is not fully enforced. In this context, the results of the Elcano Royal Institute’s survey reflect that 33% of respondents perceive water prices as high, while 49% are willing to pay more to ensure a sufficient and high-quality water supply in their homes. Among them, all would accept an increase of up to €3, and 6% would even agree to a €30-rise in their water bill.
3. The third objective
The third objective is to pay due attention to the water industry and the circular economy –in line with the new focus on competitiveness and the security of industry–. Industry accounts for 40% of total water abstractions, making water resilience a key operational concern. To ensure resilience, it is important to anticipate climate-related risks and include ex ante investments in national mitigation and adaptation plans. These plans should include detailed water risk assessments to integrate both floods and droughts, as well as early warning systems for both slow and fast onset events.
At the core of these efforts lies the adoption of data-driven approaches that facilitate information sharing and interoperability among stakeholders. In this regard, digitalisation serves as a great ally for water resilience as it can provide reliable access to data and information that is critical for enhanced water management. For instance, real-time monitoring and reporting of water use and consumption –through metering and/or remote sensing technologies such as Copernicus– allow for timely responses to water-related risks. Moreover, better data collection and analyses are key to evidence-based decision-making. Additionally, Water Europe has called for an EU Water Action Plan on Digitalisation to underpin the potential for critical material recovery, eg, in water use for mining or recycling electrical products for rare metals.
Economic sectors are increasingly aware of their critical dependency on water. In particular, new industrial demands –such as those from semiconductors, data centres, renewable hydrogen and electric battery production– could see their water demand increase by 2.6 times by 2030. Yet through a variety of digital tools, water use can be reduced, saving valuable natural and financial resources while creating an estimated 13,000 jobs across the EU. Water resilience will also be critical to established sectors, especially where the objectives of climate neutrality may be in conflict with ecosystem protection goals. Additionally, new energy infrastructures should be planned considering climate projections and cross-sector demand (ie, a nexus approach). Finally, other vulnerable sectors, like water-dependent agriculture, should anticipate measures to manage prolonged drought.
A water-resilient mindset recognises the ‘interdependencies between different sectors and across borders creating the potential to respond to severe knock-on effects in crisis situations, as we have seen in recent years’. It could also look at water resilience in climate planning, like the water resilience tracker or the role of water for economic resilience, as analysed in a recent report: a paper by López-Gunn, Tirado Sarti & Briones (2025) has emphasised the risks that climate-related water stress can pose to EU competitiveness, but also the opportunities water can offer to secure competitiveness, for example through water re-use. In the light of the Clean Industrial Deal, the ‘water efficiency first’ principle –combined with circularity models for water re-use in irrigation, industry and urban wastewater– offer resilience options. Efficiency not only provides important opportunities to recover critical raw materials such as phosphorus but also contributes to the EU’s strategic autonomy and sustainability (ibid.).
The EU Circular Economy Action Plan included water re-use and efficiency in industrial processes. Considering that in 2023 industry accounted for 20.5% of the EU’s GDP, water already performs several important functions, including the production process itself, such as washing, cooling and so on. The most water-intensive industries also generate the highest volumes of waste-water, including the chemical and related sectors, paper and pulp production, and agriculture. The circular economy promotes more integrated resource management policies around the water-energy-food nexus, and new financing and governance models that, in turn, must involve the participation, involvement and commitment of all stakeholders, especially civil society, to support these transformative systemic approaches to ensure full implementation.
4. The EU: water resistance and societal resistance
Finally, one of the most important elements missing from most European water resilience reports so far, except for the Niinistö report, is the recognition that the EU’s water resilience will be intrinsically tied to societal resilience. Building on and investing in societal resilience will be central to adapting to climate change and the fluctuations in water availability, while protecting the underpinning systemic resilience of aquatic ecosystems, thus meeting the objectives of the EU Water Framework Directive and other water-related legislation. Ultimately, resilience involves adapting to the new supply (with reduced water availability due to the impact of climate change and pollution) and demand (from sectors such as renewables and digitalisation). Water resilience in Europe, if successful, would itself contribute to the ability of the entire economy and society to withstand, recover from and adapt to adverse conditions, such as those created by the current geopolitical crises, disasters or other disruptions that are increasingly frequent. Rather than a new crisis element, water can become a new opportunity, a safe bet for action in changing times.
[1] As defined by the Niinistö report, resilience is the ability to withstand, recover from and adapt to adverse conditions, such as crises, disasters or disruptions at any scale.
[2] There is a forthcoming Policy Paper on the public perception of water issues.
