Towards Zero Pollution for Water- Disenchanted Reflections on the 2025 EU Water Resilience Strategy

In line with the UN Water Action Agenda, the European Union (EU) promoted a set of 33 commitments to accelerate the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and beyond.Under pressure exacerbated by climate change, the issue of accessibility and fair sharing of safe water is becoming a priority on the political agenda. The urgency of the situation is clearly underlined by scientists, who estimate that the freshwater planetary boundary has already been transgressed.Although the European Green Deal (EGD) did not ignore water issues, no dedicated strategy has yet been adopted—contrary to those addressing biodiversity, climate adaptation. Certainly, the EU’s Action Plan “Towards zero pollution for air, water, and soil” sets out an ambitious vision for 2050 in which pollution is “reduced to levels no longer considered harmful to human health and natural ecosystems, and that respect the boundaries our planet can cope with”. The EU has indeed established a comprehensive legal framework for the protection and management of water quality, notably through the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD). However, according to the 2025 report on the implementation of the WFD, only 39.5% of surface water bodies “appear to be in good ecological status or ecological potential”, and 26.8% in good chemical status in 2021, compared to 33.5% in 2015.Similarly, in its 2024 report on the state of Europe’s water, the European Environment Agency (EEA) highlighted the significant pressures on water bodies and the serious challenges to water security, requiring robust policies to improve Europe’s water resilience. The 2023 call of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for a European Blue Deal and the EU Water Resilience Strategy presented by the Commission in June 2025 provide a timely opportunity to critically assess the main achievements and shortcomings of EU actions in pursuing zero pollution for water. Despite the ambitious objectives of the WFD, the good status of EU water bodies still remains at risk, as reflected in contrasting results, legal weaknesses and climate-exacerbated challenges. Therefore, what legal reforms are required, and to what extent the new EU Water Resilience Strategy offers genuine added value in addressing key water quality challenges, amid a growing “Greenlash” in today’s unstable European context.