Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Water is essential for life. Access to safe water is a human right and a prerequisite for stability and peace.

However, water scarcity is rising. Industrial overuse, overpopulation, and pollution are causing water stress globally, while the effects of human-made climate change further exacerbate the phenomenon. More than half of the world’s freshwater flows across borders, and over 150 countries share transboundary river basins. Many of these basins are in regions marked by instability, climate stress and weak institutions. There is often unequal access to water resources, shared between countries or within, due to poor management and inadequate policies. This is increasingly recognized as a driver of fragility, migration, displacement, and a growing source of tension, instability and conflict, within and between states. While this report seeks to highlight constructive ways in which the EU can prevent conflict through transnational water governance, it needs to be noted that in various armed conflicts globally actors restrain access to water to cause humanitarian crises and destroy water infrastructure for tactical military reasons.

Existing EU external instruments are already active on the topic, including NDICI - Global Europe, Global Gateway and the EU’s Water Diplomacy initiatives. While welcome and useful, they are not sufficient on it their own: they have to be updated, better funded and better coordinated to facilitate effective regional cooperation, strengthen water-management institutions and mobilize sustainable investment; the Unions external instruments should also be used more actively in partnership with EU-Member States and their financial and administrative tools and capacity.

Furthermore, there is urgent need to enhance the EU’s and EEAS external engagement in the field of transboundary water cooperation through political dialogue, mediation, diplomatic outreach, technical assistance and capacity-building, data sharing, basin management, promoting transparent decision-making and governance backed by credible institutions and legal frameworks with particular attention given to local actors, promoting inclusive governance that considers the needs of vulnerable communities and minorities.

Strengthening transnational water governance is a long-term investment in stability, conflict prevention and sustainable development. In this context the Union’s external action should increasingly recognize and promote the strategic relevance of transnational water governance as a key instrument for long-term conflict prevention, regional stability, social equality and human security as well as for sustainable development. The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) should ensure that transnational water governance is recognized as a diplomatic and security priority within the EU’s foreign policy - in the neighbourhoods and enlargement regions as Balkans, MENA and Sahel, as well as across the Union’s global engagement.