Publication Category: Reports & Annual Reports

From helping shape the EU Water Resilience Strategy to defending the Polluter Pays Principle, advocating for stronger protection against PFAS, and celebrating 50 years of bringing Europe’s water professionals together, 2025 showed why water must remain at the heart of Europe’s future. Inside the report you’ll find:💧 Our policy achievements💧 Key advocacy milestones💧 New publications […]

Europe’s water services providers continue to deliver safe drinking water and wastewater services to most people across the continent. But behind this strong performance, ageing infrastructure, rising costs and new environmental challenges are putting future resilience at risk.

An overview of Europe’s water stats in 2025

We are pleased to share our 2024 Annual Report, showcasing our collective achievements and ongoing work to safeguard Europe’s water services. Despite political uncertainty and environmental setbacks, we advanced key policies, including the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, pushed for a robust PFAS ban, and continued advocating for a comprehensive Water Resilience Strategy. Discover how […]

In our paper – PFAS Phase Out: A Prerequisite for a Water Resilient Europe – we highlight the continued threat that PFAS pose to human health and the environment. We urge the European Commission to act now to ban these toxic chemicals. Known as ‘forever chemicals,’ PFAS are present in our food, air, water and everyday products. […]

2023 was a year of both achievement and challenge in our ongoing mission to protect Europe’s water resources. We made significant strides with key legislative advancements such as the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), Environmental Quality Standards and the Groundwater Directives (EQSD and GWD), sending a strong message that polluters […]

Our water services of tomorrow – Let’s make change happen The water services sector has the ambition to play a front-running role in Europe’s journey to building climate-neutral, circular, smart and resilient society. To achieve this, water services will work with local and EU level policy makers to maximise the latest innovative technologies and practices, […]

Our society, economy, environment and health depend on each of us having access to reliable, clean and affordable water every day. Your European water services strive every day to do this. Much EU legislation to better protect people and the planet has been passed or is being processed since the last European Parliament elections – […]

Our world is changing rapidly and so are water services. Innovation is key to guaranteeing the affordability of safe, sustainable and resilient water services for the decades to come. Water service providers are well aware of the challenges and have identified a number of technological and non-technological areas requiring particular innovation efforts with a view […]

2022 saw a welcome return to a more usual life after the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21. It was not without its challenges, however. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February set off a chain of reactions that reverberated throughout the year, invoking energy-reduction and energy-efficiency measures to deal with the fallout. Also linked to it […]