Eighteen months after becoming the first European Commissioner whose portfolio title explicitly includes water resilience, Jessika Roswall is overseeing one of the most consequential pieces of EU water legislation in decades and the rollout of the European Water Resilience Strategy. The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive is moving into implementation, the European Water Resilience Strategy has completed its first year, and the UN Water Conference in the United Arab Emirates is approaching in December, placing water at the centre of Europe’s environmental and competitiveness agenda. In an interview for iAgua Magazine’s July 2026 issue conducted by David Escobar Gutiérrez, Partner at iAgua, the Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy outlined the state of implementation of Europe’s new water agenda, the Commission’s efforts to mobilise investment in water resilience, and the ambitions she hopes to achieve by the end of this mandate.
The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, adopted in 2024, is the most ambitious overhaul of European wastewater policy in three decades
The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, adopted in 2024, is the most ambitious overhaul of European wastewater policy in three decades. It introduces stricter treatment standards, energy neutrality targets, and extended producer responsibility requiring pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturers to fund at least 80% of the cost of a new, quaternary treatment stage designed to remove micropollutants. Asked about priority milestones for the next five years, Roswall framed implementation as a matter of coordination rather than new rulemaking: “The updated Directive is an important stepping stone to modernise the EU wastewater sector and tackle pollution in a structural way,” she said. “Over the next five years, the Commission will support national governments and companies to transpose these rules into national laws. This demands early structured dialogue with all stakeholders. They are not passive subjects of this legislation; they are active partners in making it work.”
The European Water Resilience Strategy, launched in June 2025, set efficiency, digitalisation and investment as the three pillars of the EU’s response to water stress
The interview took place against the backdrop of the directive’s first serious political test. On 18 June, the European Parliament’s plenary debated a resolution, driven by the European People’s Party, that called for the extended producer responsibility mechanism to be temporarily suspended over concerns it could threaten the supply of generic medicines. The pharmaceutical industry has separately taken the matter to EU courts.
Roswall defended the gradual pace of the rollout. By 2033, she said,only 10-20% of large treatment plants are expected to have quaternary treatment installed, at an estimated cost of around €2.7-3.2 per citizen per year. The obligation applies equally to products manufactured outside the EU, and full application of the directive is not due until 2045.
One year into the Water Resilience Strategy
The European Water Resilience Strategy, launched in June 2025, set efficiency, digitalisation and investment as the three pillars of the EU’s response to water stress. With the Water Resilience Stakeholder Platform running since March 2026, Roswall said several of the Strategy’s actions are already complete, with others under way.
“We are making good progress on the actions outlined in the Strategy, and several are already completed,” she said. “The structured Water Dialogues are ongoing with all Member States. We will start addressing the skills gap in the water sector with the EU Water Academy, as well as looking at uses for new technologies with the Digitalisation Action Plan, and we will publish our strategy for water resilience research and innovation. The ‘water efficiency first’ guidance is also being implemented, concretely helping EU member states with new methods and guidance for setting targets, planning and measuring.”
On financing, Roswall pointed to roughly €40 billion already available under the current Multiannual Financial Framework, alongside public and private investment. The Commission is working with the European Investment Bank on a Water Investment Accelerator designed to make private investment more attractive, and the next EU budget, currently under negotiation, is expected to continue treating water as a strategic asset.
Separately, the Commission presented the Strategy’s first-year results to the Environment Council on 25 June: €3.1 billion prioritised by Member States under cohesion policy, €5 billion mobilised by the European Investment Bank’s water programme in 2025, and an estimated annual investment gap of €23 billion across the EU. Four Member States, including Spain, have opposed the Commission’s intention to review the Water Framework Directive.
Circular economy: reuse, recovery and market signals
Water reuse, nutrient recovery and sludge valorisation are increasingly central to the EU’s circular economy agenda, particularly for regions facing structural water stress. Roswall described water as having shifted from a purely environmental issue to an economic one.
“Water is no longer simply an environmental concern. It is also a competitive rening of water resilience in my portfolio. Europe’s competitiveness and the business continuation of many industries is dependent on water, and circular economy is where resilience and economic opportunity meet.”
Water reuse, nutrient recovery and sludge valorisation are increasingly central to the EU’s circular economy agenda
The revised wastewater directive supports circularity through reuse and the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater, building on existing rules such as the Water Reuse Regulation and the Industrial Emissions Directive. But Roswall was clear that legislation alone will not build a circular water economy: it needs, in her words, a change of mindset, a whole-of-government approach, investment and coherent market signals, as well as recognition that water stress varies sharply across the Union, with some regions flooding and others drying out.
Asked how the Commission balances regulatory push against market incentives, she said both are equally necessary: laws provide clarity and predictability, while market incentives help turn that framework into projects and uptake. The European Investment Bank and EU cohesion policy funds are set to provide over €18 billion in financing tailored to water investments.
Aiming for a seat at the global table
The EU is positioning itself as a standard-setter on water resilience and wastewater management internationally, with the UN Water Conference in December in the United Arab Emirates as a key milestone. Roswall described a shift in the international conversation towards delivery, security and stability.
“The focus of our water discussions has shifted to delivery, and to addressing water security, stability and peace,” she said. “The EU is firmly committed to continue its global engagement and leadership, despite the headwinds for multilateralism and the many geopolitical challenges. I believe that the UN Water Conference will be a great opportunity to create global momentum for water diplomacy.”
The Commission’s main objective for the Conference, she said, is to shape global commitment to tackling water stress, with the European Water Resilience Strategy serving as the EU’s flagship there. Roswall said she hopes the Conference can lay the groundwork for a global water governance system within the UN.
Asked what success would look like five to ten years from now, and what legacy she would want Europe to leave on water policy, Roswall was reluctant to use the word “legacy” itself. “As a Swede, we like to stay humble and I am always a little wary of using the word ‘legacy’. I prefer to let my work speak for itself,” she said. “But let me just say this: water is a strategic resource, key to our wellbeing, competitiveness and security. At the same time, water is scarce and sometimes polluted. At the end of this mandate, I hope that we can show that we have delivered on all parts of the water agenda — resilience, infrastructure, quantity and quality. I also hope that we will have managed to start changing the mindset among policymakers and citizens around water.”
Taken together, the interview reflects a file under active construction, not one settled by decree. The Commission’s own account points to concrete progress: Water Dialogues underway with every Member State, an EU Water Academy and Digitalisation Action Plan in the pipeline, and billions in EIB and cohesion funding already committed.
At the same time, the past year has shown the limits of consensus: a European Parliament resolution seeking to delay extended producer responsibility obligations, pending litigation from the pharmaceutical industry, and opposition from four Member States to a review of the Water Framework Directive. The wastewater directive itself will not be fully in force until 2045 — a reminder that this period of water policy will be judged over decades, not within a single Commission’s mandate.
