Towards a resilient water management to fight climate crisis within an EU Blue Deal
ENVE-VII/047
Towards a resilient water management to fight climate crisis within an EU Blue Deal
assesses current legislation and call on new measures to reconcile the needs of different water users with current and future water availability;
avoids disjointed efforts among national and subnational levels;
integration of water-related objectives into all relevant EU sectoral policies and investment programmes.
avoids disjointed efforts among national and subnational levels;
integration of water-related objectives into all relevant EU sectoral policies and investment programmes.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- calls on the European Commission to make water a strategic priority for its next mandate and adopt an ambitious and holistic European Water Strategy that restores the water cycle and mainstreams water into all EU policies through concrete measures and a clear timeline;
- urges the Commission to adopt a water efficiency principle to unlock effective water reuse and savings and stresses the need for a European plan to improve water efficiency of major water consumers while strengthening their competitiveness;
- stresses that the future of agriculture and food security largely depends on water availability and highlights the need to reinforce practices centred around the sustainable use of water resources in the Common Agricultural Policy;
- highlights the importance of tackling pollution at the source and calls on all EU institutions and Member States to collaborate in implementing the ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle;
- highlights the importance of the water-soil nexus for water management and calls for a water and soil driven approach, allowing water and soil to guide spatial planning;
- calls for increased financial support for Local and Regional Authorities (LRAS) and water-related actors and for better coordination of existing regional funds and funding instruments; stresses the need to boost investment in infrastructures to tackle water leakages;
- calls on the Commission to incentivise digitalisation in the water sector and to create capillary networks capable of monitoring the water system in a holistic way;
- calls on the Commission and Member States to strengthen inclusive governance, following a ‘One Water’ approach where all stakeholders from different sectors in a specific region sit around the same table.
- calls on the European Commission to make water a strategic priority for its next mandate and adopt an ambitious and holistic European Water Strategy that restores the water cycle and mainstreams water into all EU policies through concrete measures and a clear timeline;
- urges the Commission to adopt a water efficiency principle to unlock effective water reuse and savings and stresses the need for a European plan to improve water efficiency of major water consumers while strengthening their competitiveness;
- stresses that the future of agriculture and food security largely depends on water availability and highlights the need to reinforce practices centred around the sustainable use of water resources in the Common Agricultural Policy;
- highlights the importance of tackling pollution at the source and calls on all EU institutions and Member States to collaborate in implementing the ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle;
- highlights the importance of the water-soil nexus for water management and calls for a water and soil driven approach, allowing water and soil to guide spatial planning;
- calls for increased financial support for Local and Regional Authorities (LRAS) and water-related actors and for better coordination of existing regional funds and funding instruments; stresses the need to boost investment in infrastructures to tackle water leakages;
- calls on the Commission to incentivise digitalisation in the water sector and to create capillary networks capable of monitoring the water system in a holistic way;
- calls on the Commission and Member States to strengthen inclusive governance, following a ‘One Water’ approach where all stakeholders from different sectors in a specific region sit around the same table.
