The European Commission published its work programme for the next year on Tuesday (17.10.23).

We welcome its stronger focus on water, with an Initiative for Water Resilience, planned for early 2024. This initiative must put the protection of our scarce water resources at the heart of all EU policy making in terms of both quantity and quality.

Our society, economy, environment and health depend on each of us having access to reliable, clean and affordable water every day. European water services strive every day to do this. We need a robust 360° strategy at European level to ensure that water services are protected across all areas.

We were surprised however to see that highly important Green Deal measures have simply fallen off the agenda. It is particularly disappointing that a key Control at Source measures, the long due revision of REACH, and the Nutrient Management Action Plan that would help to close nutrient cycles and that was also expected months ago, have been postponed to an unspecified date.

We look forward to working with the EU institutions in the run up to the elections on preserving a sustainable water future for everyone.

Read the programme here.