Water issue takes centre stage – EU sounds the alarm
A hot summer is followed by a heated autumn in the EU, as climate measures clash with demands for cheaper energy for households and industry.
´ We must wake up,´ says EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall.
Sweden’s former Minister for EU Affairs has been the EU Commissioner responsible for the environment and water resilience since autumn 2024. Rarely has this area been as topical as it has been following a summer like this year’s – with heatwaves, forest fires and droughts across Europe.
EU-kommissionärJessika Roswall (M) at a press conference at Arlanda duirng – Our Baltic Conference.
Photo: Jessica Gow / TT
This summer has shown once again that climate change is here, and it will have major consequences. It will only get worse, warns Roswall at a press conference with Swedish and Nordic EU correspondents in Brussels.
Thousands of Europeans are estimated to have died prematurely due to the heat. The economic consequences are enormous. Nuclear power stations have been shut down due to a lack of cooling water, and transport has ground to a halt as rivers have dried up.
The water issue has become central
All the growth that Germany could have achieved this year has been wiped out by this summer’s events. It is not just a matter of adapting; we must also take action to address the fact that we do not have as much water as we thought, says Roswall.
Environmental and water issues are expected to feature prominently when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers her annual State of the Union address on Wednesday. At a recent preparatory meeting, there were two specially invited guests: one spoke on AI issues, the other was the Swedish climate scientist Johan Rockström.
At the same time, there are major question marks over how much von der Leyen is willing and able to do in a situation where several influential EU countries and large sections of the European Parliament instead want to relax various environmental requirements in order to boost traditional industry and drive down fuel and energy prices.
´ Wake up ´
According to the news site Euractiv, von der Leyen is expected, amongst other things, to pledge a new “water law” – although no details are available as to what this might entail.
Roswall does not wish to comment in advance, but notes that water scarcity – in terms of both quantity and quality – is a threat to the whole of Europe.
´ We have a Baltic Sea that is dying. We have really taken water for granted. But those days are over for us in the Nordic region too,´says the European Commissioner, also pointing to the global consequences.
´ If there is a shortage of water across the Middle East, it fuels conflict and drives migration, and migration is a sensitive issue in Europe. Once again: these things are all interconnected. The sad truth is that it’s only going to get worse, so that’s why we need to wake up,´ says Jessika Roswall.
The President of the European Commission delivers an annual ‘State of the Union’ address to outline the issues that will be prioritised in the coming years. The address has become increasingly important as an indication of what matters most to the Commission and which proposals will be put forward.
The speech is delivered on a Wednesday morning in September each year (except in years when there are European elections) before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The first was delivered by the then Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, in 2010. This year’s speech, on 16 September, is the sixth to be delivered by the current President, Ursula von der Leyen.
