PAN Europe welcomes the European Commission’s initiative for a European Water Resilience Strategy (EWRS), recognising water’s place at the centre of EU policy and urging actions to address water challenges. The recent reports by the European Commission assessing the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Floods Directive, and Marine Strategy Framework Directive highlight -once again- the urgency of the situation.
PAN Europe has been raising alarms for years about the environmental impacts of synthetic pesticide use in agriculture on water quality and biodiversity, calling for stricter and more effective implementation of existing EU legislation on pesticides. For that matter, the EWRS should build on the achievements of the Zero Pollution Action Plan and the existing EU legislations’ objectives to protect water resources against pollution in all sectoral policies related to pesticides and water pollution. In this regard, PAN Europe has co-produced a Roadmap outlining the essential steps to phase out pesticides and protect the environment, biodiversity and people’s health.