Blue Deal Accelerator – technology, skills and finance for a water-resilient future

The EU Youth Test at the EESC was applied to this opinion. The Human Development Research Initiative (HDRI) was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.

Key Points

The EESC:

• calls for water to be recognised as a critical production factor underpinning competitiveness and strategic autonomy, on a par with energy, and to be treated as a standalone strategic priority across all EU policies;
• proposes the establishment of a Blue Deal Accelerator as a comprehensive implementation framework linking industrial transformation, water‑smart technologies, skills and investments;
• reiterates its call to establish a "water test" for EU legislation;
• urges EU institutions to embed water resilience across all industrial policy instruments, making water considerations a condition for permits, investments and public support;
• calls for the progressive integration of water efficiency first as a binding requirement in EU legislation, in funding conditionalities and in planning and investment decisions, supported by a common EU methodology to measure water efficiency across the full water cycle;
• stresses the importance of recognising the water‑energy nexus as essential for decarbonisation and competitiveness, including in the Industrial Accelerator Act;
• recommends integrating water as a strategic resource in the Circular Economy Act, promoting water efficiency, reuse, pollution prevention and resource recovery;
• highlights the need to establish a European Water Data Space to ensure transparency, comparability and evidence‑based policymaking, built on standardised and interoperable data;
• calls for a coherent EU water financing framework, and for strengthening project pipelines by further developing initiatives such as the Water Resilience Investment Accelerator;
• recommends prioritising investment in leakage reduction, water‑efficient infrastructure and nature‑based solutions, including wetlands, as key elements of a resilient water system; 
• emphasises the need to align skills policies with the water transition, including through the activities of the European Water Academy;
• calls for water to be recognised as a cross‑cutting priority in EU external action, and the Global Gateway should support the blue dimension through EU-led wetland partnerships.