The Living Rivers Europe coalition – of which EAA is active & founding member – has published a new policy paper on the EU Water Initiative.
In the 2026 State of the Union, President of the European Commission stated that Europe endured “the summer of truth”, announcing the need for an “EU Water Initiative”.
August 2026 was the warmest month ever recorded, wildfires ravaged landscapes in France, Spain and even temperate Belgium, while major rivers like the Danube and the Rhine shrank to historically low levels – with severe impacts for river fish populations.
This new LRE paper outlines the underlying causes of this summer’s extreme events, the tools that EU water policies already offer to address them and what further action is needed.
With this paper – the LRE coalition shares some policy recommendations for the EU Commission for the new EU Water Initiative:
- Reverse the decision to revise the Water Framework Directive
- Accelerate the implementation and enforcement of the WFD
- Integrate the WFD into other sectoral policy and funding mechanisms
- Ensure that the upcoming Water Initiative is in line with better regulation principles, consolidates the existing legal basis, secures consistent compliance across the EU and prioritises new action to retain more water in the landscape
Access the document via this link
Why the Water Framework Directive (WFD) matters to the EU’s angling community?
The Water Framework Directive is a cornerstone of EU environmental law. The directive aims at achieving good status of European rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, groundwater, and transitional and coastal waters. They are the very environments on which fish populations (and thus the angling experience) depends. The WFD has driven efforts to
- reduce pollution
- restore river continuity; and
- improve the ecological status of Europe’s waters.
For the EU’s angling community, the link is clear, clean water means healthy fish, restored river connectivity means successful fish migration and strong environmental standards mean sustainable angling opportunities for future generations.
More on the European Anglers Alliance (EAA)’s role in the Living Rivers Europe coalition via this link.
Links & further reading
March 2026 LRE Briefing paper – briefing-paper-on-the-water-framework-directive-review-and-revision_march-2026
More information on EAA’s participation in the LRE coalition: Lobby & Advocacy partners – EAA Europe
New Living Rivers Europe briefing paper on The EU’s Water Framework Directive – EAA Europe
