Today is an important day for candidate countries, and for the European Union. We welcome the recommendation of the Commission to open accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova. We also welcome recommendations to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and to grant candidate status to Georgia, upon them meeting certain necessary conditions. The EESC will foster this process by extending the scope of our bilateral civil society bodies, and from next year onwards integrate civil society representatives from EU candidate countries in the daily work of our Committee and perform civil society health check on the ground.

Water is a global challenge and it very much concerns Europe too. Droughts are becoming more and more severe. Regions in all parts of our continent are being affected. The European Economic and Social Committee strongly believes that water can no longer be addressed in a silo mode or as a sub-chapter of another political priority. Water is THE priority. 

I would like to start by thanking all co-organisers and partners of today's conference: the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Economic and Social Council of Spain, Casa Mediterráneo and the Union for the Mediterranean with its "Day for the Mediterranean" campaign.