Press Releases

EWM Final Declaration - Girona Annual Meeting 2025

Girona, 8 December 2025

The EWM Annual Meeting 2025 came at a particularly critical moment, marked by deregulation processes promoted by the European Commission, growing pressure on water resources, and increasing frequency of prolonged droughts and floods. This context coincides with a key preparatory year for the third UN World Water Conference (December 2026), where Member States will need to define their positions and commitments.

This scenario is further complicated by the rise of far-right political forces across Europe, which drives deregulation and threatens fundamental rights such as universal access to water, recognized by the UN General Assembly and enshrined in the Drinking Water Directive.

In this context, the Girona meeting offered a platform for analyzing the impacts of European policies on water management and for developing strategies to defend water as a common and a fundamental human right. The event featured international, European, and national experts, providing critical and rigorous insights into current water-related challenges.

During the Girona meeting, held from 5 to 7 December, the European Water Movement (EWM), raised serious concerns regarding the negative consequences of the revision of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) announced by the European Commission on 10 December 2025, arguing it’s an obstacle for projects’ permitting such as mining projects. One of the main objectives of the meeting was to analyse the proposed deregulation of EU water-related legislation, both in terms of legislative amendment and financing mechanisms.

Condemnation of intimidation and union repression targeting water sector workers in Senegal

9 December 2025

Press Statement

AFRICA TRADE UNIONS AND CIVIL SOCIETY DEMAND GOVERNMENT OF SENEGAL STOP INTIMIDATORY ACTS AGAINST OUMAR BA AND WATER SECTOR WORKERS.

Download the full press release here.

To the Senegalese National Press and the International Media

CONDEMNATION OF INTIMIDATION AND UNION REPRESSION TARGETING WATER SECTOR WORKERS IN SENEGAL

The Africa Water Justice Network (AWJN) issues this statement to the national press in Senegal and to international media outlets to draw urgent attention to a situation of exceptional gravity within the country’s public water sector.

We firmly condemn the ongoing intimidation, pressure, and threats of dismissal directed at workers, including trade union representatives who are advocating for transparency, accountability, respect for fundamental labour rights and sector reforms that impact positively on both workers and served communities. The ongoing repression represents a direct attack on union freedoms and people’s rights.

Appeal to the ECtHR : Because you write Water, but read Democracy

"Because you write Water, but read Democracy" is the slogan that has accompanied us for almost twenty years and, still today, is the main motive why we presented at the Chamber of Deputies our appeal we will lodge with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

By this action, the Forum Italiano dei Movimenti per l’Acqua (Italian Forum of Water Movements), guardian of the successful outcome of the June 2011 referendum by which 27 million Italians expressed their clear will to exclude water management from market and profit logic, intends to assert this right currently still denied to all of us; denial that risks exacerbating the situation of social inequality already present in our country.

More than 100 European academics warn against a European Parliament proposal that could hinder the public services management

18 June 2025

The European Water Movement launches an appeal to defend the right of municipalities to opt for direct management of services such as water, transport and cleaning.

Over 100 professors, academics, researchers and experts in Public procurement, business and public management are calling to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) negotiating the European Parliament report on the proposal for the revision of the public procurement Directive that is being currently discussed, not to introduce more administrative burden on local and regional governments and to promote more insourcing and inhouse provision when municipalities see fit.

More than 100 professors and academics from over 18 countries and over 50 different universities and institutes are calling the legislators to ensure that inhouse provision is uphold by the current parliament. Some MEPs with a far-right background have been promoting a dangerous element of what is usually called ‘competitive compulsive tendering’ echoing old proposals by the British Thatcherite right.

Water Resilience Strategy, Contribution to the Call for Evidence

March 2025

Contribution by the European Water Movement to the Calls for Evidence

Water Resilience Strategy
Water Efficiency First Principle

The European Water Movement (EWM) is an open, inclusive, and pluralistic network whose goal is to reinforce the recognition of water as a common good and a fundamental universal right. We are united in our fight against the privatization and commodification of this vital resource and in our commitment to constructing a public and communal management system for water, founded on the democratic participation of citizens and workers. The EWM was one of the promoters of the 2012/13 European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Right2Water” on the Human Right to Water.

The last EEA report on Europe’s State of Water 2024 has highlighted frightening figures on both water quality and quantity in surface waters and groundwaters, where some of the main drivers have been clearly identified.

Although we recognize various positive elements in the Water Resilience Strategy initiated by the European Commission, we believe that some critical issues remain unaddressed. These shortcomings compromise the strategy’s effectiveness, democratic and participatory nature, and, equally important, the preservation of water resources.

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