“Climate change is already affecting Europe in various forms, depending on the region. It can lead to biodiversity loss, forest fires, decreasing crop yields and higher temperatures. It can also affect people's health.”[i]

It has been seen in the recent past that floods and droughts are more and more affecting European Union Members States and impact all citizens and all economic sectors. The 17^th EWA Brussels Conference focused on the Blue initiatives in the Green Deal and highlighted the importance of transdisciplinary cooperation to guarantee a reliable and high qualitative access to water for all across the European Union.

After an introduction on the ongoing and new EU Water Initiatives at the European level by DG Environment, session 1 on Water and Soil Protection showed which strategy the European Union has chosen to achieve the objective of the Green Deal. And what is means for the water sector. It focused on providing an overview of the current situation and regulation before discussing the impact of the EU Soil Strategy on water and the use of sewage sludge. During this session, the European Environment Agency, the European Investment Bank and the DG Environment presented their views on that topic.

Session 2 on Floods and Droughts in Europe had a look at the past extreme events in Europe before discussing the necessary territorial management to improve the water availability. In this session, DG Research presentedt its view on drought prevention research as well as researcher from across the EU.

You can find the flyer of the session here and below the pictures of the event.