Water scarcity and drought risk management in the EU: towards an EU Water Scarcity and Droughts Directive?

Marchien van Steinvoorn and Herman Kasper Gilissen

Chapter 21 in Research Handbook on EU Water Law, 2026, pp 368-384 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter discusses the EU policy framework on water scarcity and drought risk management. After a general presentation of potential strategies and measures, it describes relevant policy developments, including the recently adopted Water Resilience Strategy. Furthermore, it discusses the WFD as the main legal basis for the management of drought and water scarcity, and it reflects critically on its functioning as such. Lastly, this chapter discusses the way forward by presenting three potential means of further enhancing the management of water scarcity and drought risk in the EU. These options are 1) to improve the soft-law basis for drought management and planning, 2) to embed more explicit legal obligations regarding water scarcity and drought management within the WFD, and 3) to create a separate comprehensive and tailored legislative basis for the management of water scarcity and drought risk (e.g., a Water Scarcity and Droughts Directive). It concludes that, with the adoption of the Water Resilience Strategy, the Commission clearly opted for the first option, but future legislative action should not be ruled out as a way of overcoming issues of uniformity, transboundary cooperation, and enforceability.

Keywords: Water Scarcity; Drought Risk Management; Water Framework Directive; Water Scarcity and Droughts Directive; Water Resilience Strategy; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035336425
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