Living Rivers Europe: EU Water Initiative must prioritise water retention and keep WFD intact (report)

Living Rivers Europe, a coalition of seven environmental and angling organisations, wants the European Commission to make the restoration of the landscape's natural capacity to retain water a priority of the new EU Water Initiative, and to build the Initiative on the existing Water Framework Directive (WFD) without reopening its text. The recommendations are set out in a policy brief published on 1 October 2026.

The Initiative was announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her 16 September 2026 State of the Union speech, which referred to “the summer of truth”. The coalition argues that this summer's wildfires and very low river levels, such as on the Danube and the Rhine, reflect not only climate change but also long-standing water mismanagement.

It says centuries of…