How clean is water in Europe, and is there enough of it? A conference in Vienna on 20 and 21 September 2018 will discuss trends in European water quality and flood management, and look at whether Europe’s water policy is able to deal with water challenges of the past and those of the future.
In the last 40 years EU water policies have helped deliver sufficient quantities of clean water to Europe's citizens. Thanks to billions of Euros of investment, and the efforts of millions of people working together, industrial emissions have reduced, waste water is collected and cleaned and risks from flooding are diminished. We can swim in most of our lakes and the sea, and drink water from the tap virtually everywhere. But much remains to be done.
The 5th EU Water Conference will discuss the latest state and trends in the quality of Europe’s water and look at the main pressures on water quality and quantity, such as agriculture, man-made changes to rivers and pollution from industry or households. It will also address how we can prevent floods or limit their impacts.
The conference will be an opportunity to learn about good experiences in improving water quality and restoring the ecological functions of rivers, innovative technical solutions and effective policies at national or local level. It will discuss River Basin Management Plans prepared by EU Member States for the period 2015-2021 and feed into the European Commission’s evaluation of water legislation. The conference will also be an occasion to network with around 400 peers and stakeholders from the water community across Europe.
Elisabeth Köstinger, Austrian Minister of Sustainability and Tourism will open the event. Michel Dantin, Member of the European Parliament, will also address the conference.
Background:
The European Commission and Austria, which holds the current presidency of the Council of the EU, are organising the 5th European Water Conference. The conference comes at a key moment in the development of European water policy.
The European Environment Agency has recently published a comprehensive report on the state of Europe’s water. It shows that water quality is improving, albeit slowly. Apart from dealing with current water quality problems, water policy should also deal with future problems such as the impacts of climate change and the increasing amounts of micropollutants in our water.
The Commission is also finalising its assessment of the River Basin Management Plans and the Flood Risk Management Plans for the period 2015 and 2021.
Finally, the complete EU water legislation is being evaluated: the Commission has just started the Fitness Check of the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive and an evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. You can access the online public consultation for this evaluation here.
For more information:
Public consultation on the evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive
European Environment Agency's State of Water Report
Statement on the EEA Report by Karmenu Vella, EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
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About European Water Conference
The 5th European Water Conference aims to present and discuss progress in the implementation of EU water legislation. The event is jointly organised by the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment and the forthcoming Austrian EU Presidency.
Around 400 representatives from EU countries, stakeholder groups in relevant economic, social and environmental sectors, the European Commission, the European Environment Agency and other EU institutions will have the opportunity to debate about the findings of the different water-related reports and learn from each other's experiences in view of the next water planning cycles. The ongoing Fitness Check of the Water Framework Directive, its associated Directives and the Floods Directive, and the evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) will also be discussed.
The main objective of EU water legislation is to achieve good status of the EU's water resources. During 2018, a new comprehensive assessment of the state of implementation will become available. This will include a forthcoming Commission report on the EU Member States' second River Basin Management Plans and first Flood Risk Management Plans, together with the forthcoming State of Water Report 2018 from the European Environment Agency.
Hashtag for the event on Twitter: #EUWater2018