EU WATER LEGISLATION

“WWith the majority of EU water bodies still not in good shape, further acceleration of action by Member States is urgently needed” . The recent scientific reports on climate change, biodiversity, and natural resources, are unanimous. We must tackle these major socio-ecological emergencies and radically change our mode of development now (A). Such transformations require integrating the extensive ecological complexities of water issues (B). Water protection and management policies have to be based on an integrated and ecosystem approach (C).

A-Major socio-ecological emergencies

As described in a recent EU report , among EU groundwater bodies, 75% achieved good chemical status and 90% achieved good quantitative status. The situation is clearly worrying for EU surface waters bodies for which only 44 % are in a good or high ecological status and only 31% are of good chemical status. Climate change is significantly impacting the situation and the European Commission underlines that the “challenge of water quantity management is becoming ever more urgent across Europe” . Availability in sufficient quality and quantity is clearly at stake in several regions in Europe. This crucial issue impacts not only many human activities, but also ecosystems and natural entities. The summer of 2022 has illustrated these emergencies and tensions over the use and the sharing of water resources which will increase in the coming years. In line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal emphasises the requirement “in ensuring that no one is left behind” . The European Commission underlines that water pricing “requires a careful design in order to justice to local conditions and social concerns” . Following the European Citizen initiative Right2water, the EU institutions recognise the need to take greater account of the needs of European vulnerable groups in accordance with the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. According to the UN report on water resources (2019), the coverage of safely manage water services varies from 24% in Sub-Saharan Africa to 94% in Europe and Northern America. On a global scale, the impacts of hydroclimatic variability on water availability and food security are becoming more and more worrying . They risk increasing the water footprint of international trade, and its transfers of virtual water. The responsibility of the EU and the Member States is clearly to be taken into consideration . At EU level, water stress affects 20 % of the territory and 30% of the population every year .

Facing these socio-ecological emergencies requires major investment in sober and sustainable management and use of water resources. Clearly protecting water resource and aquatic ecosystems has a cost; but the cost of their inadequate protection in the long term and non-compliance with existing environmental legislations is even greater. The European Environmental Agency estimates that “droughts cause economic damages of up to EUR 9 billion annually and additional, unquantified damage to ecosystems and their services” . A recent study on the costs of not implementing EU environmental law considers that “the total costs for society of current environmental implementation gaps are around UR 55 billion annually” . The importance of the benefits of the protection of water and aquatic ecosystems has received growing attention to offset short and medium economic costs. In the new European biodiversity strategy, the Commission underlines that the protection of coastal wetlands “could save the insurance industry around EUR 50 billion annually through reducing flood damage losses” . In 2019 the European Parliament declared a climate and environment emergency and requested a major reform of the European agricultural, trade, transport, energy and infrastructure investment policies . The Member States recognise that the lack of investment is one of the factors which could explain the insufficient implementation of the Water Framework Directive .

According to the Commission, the investments needed to be much higher than EUR 142 billion, according to a consultant’s study. The Commission also considers that the estimated total of EUR 14 billion for the flood risk management plan is “most probably an underestimation” . The recent Regulation (EU) 2020/852 on sustainable investment includes the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources among the six environmental objectives; it identifies the conditions for an economic activity to be qualified as contributing substantially to this objective without significantly harming any of the other environmental objectives . In 2021 the Commission indicated that “the sustainable Europe Investment Plan aims to mobilise at least EUR 1 trillion in investments over the next decade from private and publics actors” to ensure a fair socio-ecological transition. The awareness of the intertwined ecological and socio-economic emergencies must be combined with consideration of the high ecological complexity of water issues (B).