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The 2024 EU Green Week is part of #WaterWIseEU, a campaign to stimulate an EU-wide conversation around water today and in the future. The campaign aims at fostering awareness and promoting positive, collaborative solutions. Organisations across Europe are invited to join the campaign now. Register now for the EU Green Week conference "Towards a water resilient Europe", on 29-30 May in Brussels.
Water is a vital shared resource to be passed down from generation to generation - essential for people, for the environment and for a just, sustainable, and resilient economy.
Citizens across the continent are facing a surge in natural disasters like droughts and floods, which have made the EU’s water challenges more severe and brought a new awareness of the need for water-resilience. Pressures on water resources come from decades of mismanagement of this precious resource, pollution, and ecosystem degradation, as well as from climate change. Worldwide, the water cycle is out of balance, closely intertwined with climate change and biodiversity loss, with each crisis worsening the other.
At the conference, guest speakers will discuss various aspects of integrated water management. This includes topics such as:
- fostering a water smart economy within the EU
- addressing the challenges of restoring and safeguarding the disrupted water cycle
- ensuring widespread access to clean and affordable water and
- sanitation and international water cooperation.
The Natura 2000 award ceremony will take place in the evening of 29 May, followed by the LIFE award ceremony in the evening of 30 May.
For the full programme of the conference, visit the official event page.
EEA's role in the event
The EEA will organise a stand at the event, under the title of "Quality of bathing water – 2023 status".
The water we swim in can be affected by many factors, including storm surges, pollution, marine litter and microplastics. Pollution from shipping also affects air and water quality, and life in our seas, lakes and rivers. Thanks to EU legislation and effective implementation by Members States, the bathing water quality improved significantly over the last four decades. Today more than 95% of bathing sites meet the minimum standards set by EU legislation.
Member States monitor the quality of bathing water during the bathing season. This data is then reported to the EEA who analyses and quality checks the data in order to assess the overall water quality for a given bathing season. This assessment is a good indication of the bathing water quality for the coming season.
EEA Photo exhibition
The EEA has selected a collection of water-themed photographs to be displayed at Green Week. These captivating images were submitted by talented photographers across three of our photo competitions: WaterPIX, Climate Change PIX and Well With Nature. Visit the exhibition centre to view the prints up close or explore the collection on the Green Week website.