Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

I am very glad to be here with you today at the Regional Water Forum “Danube - Eastern Europe” 2025. Its a pleasure to see and experience the engagement and enthusiasm in the water sector in the region.  

Whenever I travel around our Union – and I travel a lot – I am struck by how engaged citizens and companies are on water issues in all parts of Europe. This forum is a great example of how we as Europeans can work together across national borders to make change possible.

So thank you for this and thank you for inviting me. I come just from an interesting meeting in the Romanian Parliament, where I discussed with members of your parliament on matters relating to water and environment in particular. I emphasised the importance of clean water and a healthy environment for our collective resilience, security and competitiveness.

Flying to Bucharest last evening, I enjoyed the views of the Danube. One of the most important and emblematic rivers in Europe. It has been and continues to be one of the most important waterways in Europe. It is part of our DNA, our common history, culture and economy—a role it has played since the Roman empire. But whereas in that age, the Danube served primarily as a vital frontier, today it acts as a bridge and a transport route connecting Eastern and Central Europe. It is a living showroom of what a River basin is all about.

Being the most international river basin in the world, this also means that the Danube comes with complexities, challenges and opportunities which remind us of the of the importance of regional cooperation and united, cross-country strategic planning in water management.

Transboundary cooperation is at the heart of the European project and at the core of EU water policy. Cooperation is essential for water resilience, peace and prosperity.

This regional event is therefore the perfect occasion for me to present to you the European Water Resilience Strategy that the European Commission adopted only two weeks ago.

But first, I want to briefly present the diagnosis of where we start from as regards water resilience.

Earlier this year, the European Commission published three important reports assessing what Member States are doing to protect freshwater and marine waters and to better prepare against floods. The overall findings are clear. Europe is water-stressed. Our waters are heavily polluted, our water supply is under pressure, we are not reducing enough the risk of serious floods, and droughts appear now in almost all parts of Europe – also where we never had them before. The new normal on water is, that there is no normal anymore.

But allow me to expand a bit more on where we are coming from.

We must understand, that in particular, surface waters are in a critical state. Only a quarter of surface water bodies are achieving good chemical status. It means that the relevant thresholds of hazardous substances are exceeded in 75% of Europes water bodies. And less than 40% achieve a good ecological status with healthy ecosystems and abundant biodiversity. That is a major challenge.

Groundwaters, on which large parts of the EU population depend for drinking water, are doing much better. But they are also suffering from significant pollution from nitrates and pesticides. Moreover, some Member States run serious risks of groundwater depletion.

Pollution, biodiversity loss and unsustainable water management practices are the root causes.

Industrial and urban discharges continue to pollute our rivers, lakes and coastal waters.

We are not sufficiently protecting our wetlands and land planning does not take sufficiently into account the growing flood risks.

Meanwhile we are massively changing our rivers and lakes through artificial barriers. The impact of those changes goes beyond water management as it affects for instance migratory fish, such as the iconic Danube sturgeons.

Climate change is making things worse. Droughts are – as I mentioned before - becoming more frequent and severe across Europe, and the Danube basin is no exception. Water scarcity in agriculture, inland navigation and energy are a growing concern. In Romania, the climate risk analysis showed that 9 out of 10 rivers are projected to decrease in flow rate.

But climate change also comes with more frequent and more intense floods. From West to East, no part of Europe is spared. Your beautiful country has suffered widespread damage too, including only recently to the iconic Praid salt mine where floodwaters from the Corund River late May infiltrated the underground galleries and compromising its stability.

Additionally, the floods led to saline pollution threatening the environment and water supply. As a prompt consequence Romanian authorities activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, requesting expert assistance for recovery efforts. Experts from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Hungary are now since the beginning of June active on the ground helping Romanian experts on recovery strategies and evaluate the risks.

The situation at the Praid Salt Mine is one of the too many calls for action. That is why President von der Leyen has made it a key political priority to develop and implement a comprehensive Water Resilience Strategy, which I was proud to present on June 4^th.

First of all, I want to emphasise that there is no “quick fix” to solve the water crisis. The strategy is not a “silver bullet”. But it is the map and a bit toolbox towards water resilience in action, and in the right direction.

Second, water is a resource we share. There can be no solution without cooperation. This is even more true for the Danube, where a source-to-sea approach have proven to help preserving the UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve of the Danube Delta.

Having this in mind, the strategy puts forward three goals. First, we must fix the broken water cycle. Second, we have to build a water-smart economy. Third, we have to ensure clean and affordable water for all.

To achieve our goals, we have put forward over 30 flagship actions. I refer to the full text of the strategy for more details, but I would like to draw here an outline of the five main key areas tackled.

To begin with, we have a huge focus on water efficiency first. Europe should aim to enhance water efficiency by at least 10% already by 2030. Member States know their national situation best, so we are very mindful of regional and local differences There is no one size fits all. Different sectors have different needs. Different river basins have different challenges and opportunities.  The 10% objective is about giving a clear sense of travel and provide a better basis for sharing best practice, so that we can give future generations a truly water resilient future.

Secondly, there is an urgent need to upgrade water infrastructure across Europe and boost investments. On average 30% of water is lost in Europe due to leaky pipes before reaching users. In some countries of the Danube basin, it can reach up to 50%.

Around two thirds of Europes investment need to update water infrastructure are covered by public funding, but there is still an investment gap. I am very glad to announce that in the framework of the strategy, the European Investment Bank will mobilise EUR 15 billion in the next three years to boost lending for water investments.

Thirdly, making the most of digitalisation and innovation. Europe is home to many innovative water technology companies and accounts for 40% of global patents. There are plenty of innovative solutions to improve a cost- and time efficient leak detections and repariments, to save water at home, and to predict scarce supplies. Let me give you some examples:

In the city of Burgas in Bulgaria, an AI model achieved over 90% accuracy in leak detection in an EU funded project. Another example is the project “Danube Water Balance”, led by Hungary, to establish a robust water balance model across Danube countries. And amongst the startups in Romania I know, you have also companies working with AI helping the water sector on leakage detection, energy savings, and water savings.

I hope to see many more examples in the next months and years. For the sake of European water resilience. But also because this will make Europe a living showroom of all the innovative water-technologies, that are invented in Europe but can contribute to sustainable change elsewhere on the globe and thereby strengthen the European competitiveness.

Did you know, that over 40% of all patents on water technologies are European? I want these patents to find a faster way from lab to fab – so to say. This is important for our environment and our economy.

Fourthly, improving governance and implementation. We have a very solid body of EU rules on water in place, but implementation often lags behind. We will increase support to Member States based on structured dialogues to establish enforcement priorities.

And we will also focus on helping Member States better identify flood and drought risks, cooperate more effectively across borders, and better protect water infrastructure to step up our security and preparedness.

Fifth – and now Im almost at the end - access to clean water is indisputably important. Pollution and especially PFAS contamination are an issue that people increasingly worry about due to the impact on our health and environment.

For me it is clear – and it is stated in the Water Resilience Strategy - clean-up must be based on the polluter pays principle. Investing in technology and innovation is key to detect and remediate pollution.

That is why we will set up a public private partnership that supports technological breakthroughs to clean up pollution from PFAS and other chemicals.

Finally, having said all this, I want to underline that water is managed at many levels. Municipalities and regions are often best placed to act. But cooperation is key. Both within the EU, but also at a broader level. This includes, of course, the fruitful cooperation within the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, and in the future also in the frame of the new International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems European Research Infrastructure (DANUBIUS-ERIC) that will have address in Romania.

Politics can sometimes be almost like art, and allow me to quote Romanias national poet – Mihai Eminescu who said:

We would like to believe that the whole Occident will finally understand that, as regards the Danube, Romanias interests are those of the whole Western world itself.”

Cooperation at various levels is necessary because water stress is a global challenge. We have to promote water cooperation as a tool for peace, not conflict.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are on the road to a water resilient Europe. It is the start of a challenging but necessary journey. We are well equipped with solid rules, a very competitive water sector, a lot of experience and relentless determination to make Europe water resilient.

I praised in the beginning the bridging role of the Danube. This forum is a bridging event. Politics is about building bridges. Solid and long-lasting bridges to secure enough, affordable and clean water to all – at all times.

Let me reiterate how happy I am to be here and discuss with all of you.

As much as time allow, I would be happy to take some questions.

Thank you.