Think of flooding, drought, biodiversity loss, or pollution – to name just a few of the water-related challenges facing Europe today. To address them, the European Commission plans to present its European Water Resilience Strategy in the second quarter of this year. Ahead of its presentation, MEPs are calling for investment in water infrastructure, stricter monitoring of chemicals and binding pollution reduction targets.

“The European Union does not have a safe and resilient water supply,” said Thomas Bajada, the Socialist group’s representative on the European Parliament’s environment committee, at the 26 February ENVI meeting. “We cannot afford to continue to regard water as an unlimited resource. Water is not that,” he appealed to his colleagues.

Mr Bajada has been tasked with drafting a European Parliament report on what lawmakers think the strategy should look like. His draft report focuses on six aspects: water efficiency, pollution mitigation, climate change adaptation, financing, digitalisation and innovation, and cross-border cooperation.

“I believe that greater water efficiency and the reduction of water demand are the key priorities. Industry is responsible for forty per cent of all bottlenecks disrupting the flow of water, while agriculture is the biggest single consumer. We need binding sectoral targets for water use efficiency and bottleneck reduction, tailored to national states’ circumstances and set at the level of the individual river basins,” Mr Bajada said. He said the next steps include better monitoring of water use and a shift to more sustainable farming.

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European streams contain hazardous chemicals, do not meet standards

The MEP also pointed to the problem of water pollution. While the European Union already has binding legislation that sets quality standards, implementation and enforcement across Europe is patchy.

“Agricultural waste, industrial waste and pollutants such as PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, also known as the Forever Chemicals, are a large chemical family of over 10,000 highly persistent chemicals that don’t occur in nature, ed.), pharmaceuticals, bisphenols and microplastics continue to pollute our waters. I therefore call for the rigorous implementation of existing legislation, together with the introduction of legally binding EU water quality standards and a pan-European quality standard for PFAS in both groundwater and surface water,” Mr Bajada said.

Climate change adaptation also deserves more attention, the MEP argued. That includes efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change such as drought, extreme floods and high temperatures – the latter being something that Mr Bajada, who hails from Malta, is well acquainted with.

All this requires adequate financial resources. “Therefore, I request that a specific chapter be created within the Multiannual Financial Framework to ensure long-term investment in water security, digitalisation and innovation,” the MEP said. In addition, he also mentioned the role of digitalisation and the need for enhanced cross-border cooperation to ensure that rivers are looked after along their entire length, not just in some member states.

Water scarcity affects almost 30 per cent of Europeans

María del Carmen Crespo Díaz, a People’s Party MEP who serves as her group’s shadow rapporteur on the report, also called for greater investment in water protection. She also pointed out that water scarcity now affects almost 30 per cent of Europeans.

“(This is why) we need to focus on solutions, on science based on natural principles, but also on research to help facilitate access to groundwater,” she said. She also mentioned a greater focus on the water purification process. “This is extremely important if we want to secure the future of Europeans,” she added.

Aurelijus Veryga, representing the conservatives, said that while the growing need for resilience in water management should be emphasised, he was strongly opposed to binding regulations. “Resilience should be addressed by practical cost-effective solutions rather than excessive regulation,” he said, adding that specific steps should be left to nation states. However, he too supported more funding in this area.

Another MEP, Grégory Allione of the Renew Europe group, suggested strengthening the “the polluter pays” principle. “Households must not be the only ones feeling the impact,” he stressed. He also recalled his firefighter past and said that Europe must focus on crisis preparedness, among other things. “Ninety per cent of natural disasters are water-related,” he stressed. He also mentioned the need for better maintenance of water pipes. They are responsible for the loss of about 20 per cent of our water, he said.

MEPs are expected to vote on the report in committee in early April and in plenary in May. The European Commission has been collecting input on the strategy from stakeholders and the public in a feedback period ending 4 March.