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The European Water Resilience Strategy

TA-10-2025-0091 · P10_TA(2025)0091 · PE766.919

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament's resolution on the European Water Resilience Strategy calls for a comprehensive EU strategy integrating water quality, quantity, security, infrastructure, technology and management, with restoration of the water cycle as a key element. It demands legislative frameworks for water efficiency and abstraction targets, EU-wide PFAS quality standards, drought management plans, a dedicated EU fund for water resilience, and integration of water into all EU policies. It stresses the human right to water, the need for cross-border cooperation, and the importance of nature-based solutions and innovation for water resilience.

Key points

  1. Welcomes the announced European Water Resilience Strategy and calls for it to address water efficiency, scarcity, pollution and water-related risks.
  2. Calls for a legislative framework setting sectoral water efficiency and abstraction targets at basin level, covering all water uses, with a common EU methodology.
  3. Calls for EU-wide quality standards for PFAS in groundwater and surface water, and for phasing out PFAS in consumer goods where no safe alternatives exist.
  4. Calls for updated limits on PFAS in drinking water and a full risk assessment of microplastics in drinking water.
  5. Calls for the revision of the Nitrates Directive to promote circular nutrient management and for an integrated nutrient management action plan.
  6. Calls for drought management plans in all Member States and EU-level provisions similar to flood management plans.
  7. Calls for a separate and dedicated fund for water resilience within the next multiannual financial framework.
  8. Calls for water pricing policies that reflect costs and availability while safeguarding affordability for households and small businesses.
  9. Calls for integrating water efficiency measures in data centres and addressing their water use in the strategy.
  10. Calls for enhanced cross-border cooperation and a specific EU diplomatic role for resolving water-related conflicts.
  11. Calls for prioritising nature-based solutions for water resilience, alongside complementary engineering solutions.

Who is affected

  • EU member states, which must implement water efficiency targets, drought plans, and pricing policies.
  • Industry, including data centres, semiconductors, and water-intensive sectors, which face water efficiency requirements.
  • Farmers, who are supported for sustainable practices and innovative irrigation, but face nutrient management changes.
  • Pharmaceutical and cosmetic producers, which must cover at least 80% of micropollutant removal costs under the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

Figures and deadlines

  • 23% of treated water lost during distribution in the EU due to leaky pipes.
  • 60-70% of the potential value of wastewater across the EU is currently unexploited; less than 3% of treated wastewater is reused.
  • Annual investment needs for water estimated at EUR 77 billion, with a financing gap of around EUR 25 billion a year.
  • In 2021, 91% of groundwater bodies had good quantitative status, 77% good chemical status; 37% of surface water bodies had good or high ecological status, 29% good chemical status.
  • Average annual economic loss from droughts in the EU between 1981 and 2010 estimated at around EUR 9 billion per year.
  • 12% of Europe's population lives in floodplains.
  • Around 23% of the EU's territory is moderately susceptible to desertification and 8% highly susceptible.

Legal basis: Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union