The European Commission has told member states to treat new water supply as a last resort, placing it below demand cuts and reuse in the recommendation that accompanies its water resilience strategy.
The recommendation on the water efficiency first principle, published on June 4, 2025, sets an order of priority. Curbing demand and over-abstraction comes first, then efficiency by design and reuse, with increased supply described as “the last resort option”.
What the strategy has delivered so far is institutional. Four of its 30 main actions are complete, according to the Commission’s own tracker, and they consist of a stakeholder forum, a European Investment Bank advisory facility, a roadmap for nature credits and a reallocation of cohesion policy money.
Measures still in progress include a Water Resilience Stakeholder Platform, a European Water Academy, a Water Smart Industrial Alliance, a Water Resilience Investment Accelerator, a Copernicus Water Thematic Hub and a Knowledge and Innovation Community.
Enforcement of existing water law runs through Structured Dialogues with national capitals, each made up of two technical meetings followed by a political meeting. Five member states have completed both technical rounds.
The methodology for measuring the bloc’s headline goal of a 10 per cent efficiency gain by 2030 is not expected before a review in 2027. The target is not binding.
The proposed remedy for lost water is largely digital. The Commission reckons smart meters can cut consumption by up to 25 per cent, with monitoring systems and automated leak detection adding further savings.
Between a quarter and a third of treated water in the EU never reaches a tap. Losses exceed 60 per cent in Bulgaria and reached 42 per cent in Italy in 2022.
A European Parliament report put member states’ annual water investment needs at €77 billion, with a financing gap of about €25 billion a year. The cohesion policy mid-term review shifted €3.1 billion and the EIB has €15 billion available for 2025-2027.
The bloc is meanwhile dismantling river infrastructure. The Nature Restoration Regulation requires 25,000 km of rivers to be returned to a free-flowing state by 2030, and 603 barriers, mostly obsolete dams and weirs, were removed across 21 countries in 2025.
An analysis by AFP of Copernicus data found record low July flows along 85 per cent of monitored stretches of the Rhine and about two-thirds of the Danube, the weakest since measurements began in 1992.
Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall has said governments can decide for themselves how to make the savings, whether by fixing leaks or expanding reuse. She described the strategy as “the beginning of a journey”.
