Progress report on addressing water scarcity and droughts in Europe

Description

Third Follow up Report to the Communication on water scarcity and droughts in the European Union COM (2007) 414 final. In 2007, the Commission adopted a Communication on Water Scarcity & Drought (WS&D)1. The Communication identified seven policy areas that had to be addressed if Europe was to move towards a water-efficient economy. In October 20072 the Council supported the options identified in the Communication and invited the Commission to review the strategy for WS&D by 2012 and in 2008 the European Parliament adopted a resolution underlining that urgent actions and more funds are needed. Action to improve the efficient use of water resources should be seen in the context of the Flagship initiative on resource efficiency3 as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Consequently, mitigation actions were developed and restrictions were applied in order to restrict water use (FR), irrigation (RO, SE, CY) and shipping (NL) in some of the affected Member States. Six Member States reported that they did not experience drought or water scarcity situations (AT, BE, EE, IE, LU, SK), and the same applied to Switzerland (CH). This information reported by the Member States should be seen in relation to the 2010 State of the Environment report from the European Environment Agency7 which states, that 'Except in some northern and sparsely-populated countries that possess abundant resources, water scarcity occurs in many areas of Europe, particularly in the south, confronted with a crucial combination of a severe lack of and high demand for water'. The present report gives further details on the extent of WS&D in the EU and the measures which are being put in place to address both situations. The report also sets out the activities to be implemented by the Commission in preparation for the 2012 review of WS&D policy.

Reference information