Initiative for water resilience

Name of the opinion: European Water Resilience Strategy

The European Commission is expected to publish a European Water Resilience Strategy in June 2025, with the aim of developing a comprehensive, multi-annual and cross-sectoral plan to address water resilience.

Building on the EESC's work on the EU Blue Deal, the CCMI will draft an opinion on the new Water Resilience Strategy. The EESC's call for an EU Blue Deal underlines the need for a more comprehensive and strategic approach to water in the EU. This new vision calls for coherent action to tackle water challenges, with the aim of securing access to drinking water and sanitation, protecting ecosystems, wetlands and biodiversity, reducing our water footprint (in agriculture, industry and household consumption), modernising water infrastructures, as well as establishing the necessary investments to face the important water-related challenges ahead. Since the launch of the call, the EESC has urged decision makers to address water as a strategic priority for the EU, on a par with the European Green Deal. The opinion will examine how well the new strategy aims to integrate water into all policy areas and across sectors, as recommended in the first principle of the EESC's EU Blue Deal Declaration.