Water is not a marketable product, but a common good and a limited resource that we must protect and use sustainably, both in terms of quality and quantity. Many economic sectors (agriculture, tourism, transport and energy) exploit it in various ways.
In 2012, the Commission published a plan to protect Europe’s water resources, a long-term strategy to ensure sufficient quality water for all types of legitimate use by better implementing the current EU water policy, integrating water policy objectives into other policy areas and filling gaps in the current framework .
The plan calls for Member States to introduce water use calculations and water efficiency targets and to develop EU standards for water reuse (EUROPARL – Cristian Kurrer, 2021).
