Portuguese minister calls for water resilience financing by EU investment bank

Portuguese environment minister Maria da Graça Carvalho today (September 3) asked the EU executive to consider water a financing, political and EU strategic priority and to corral the assistance of the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the issue during a meeting with the European Commission’s chief of the environment department.

Carvalho and Florika Fink-Hooijer discussed a letter sent by Portugal and 21 co-signatury EU member states in July to Executive Vice-President Maros Sefcovic and Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra calling on the EU executive to deliver “concrete action” to boost water resilience in “all its dimensions”.

“We do not need legislation on water. What we need is for it to be considered a priority in the next EU budget and for it to be a priority for the EIB because we need a lot of investment,” Carvalho told reporters today in front of the Berlaymont, the Commission’s headquarters, referring to the rising level of droughts, water scarcity and floods across Europe.

Carvalho said Fink-Hooijer was “very grateful” for this initiative and that it was very well received by Commission President von der Leyen, noting the EU executive’s chief had already publicly referred to water as an urgent priority for measures to be taken at the beginning of her second term.

EU action on water scarcity was shelved earlier this year following an anti-green backlash ahead of the EU elections. The Portuguese minister is now pressing Brussels to move ahead with concrete action on water protection since the government is currently preparing a water strategy, a joint work between the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of the Economy, and preparing an investment plan to be proposed to the EIB.

“This [water strategy] is an investment plan that is very necessary for Portugal and precisely for negotiation and submission to the EIB in the area of ​​energy,” Carvalho stressed.

Carvalho also hailed Iberian partnership on water policy, as Portugal and Spain are in the process of finalising the Guadiana river project due to be signed on September 26, which will supply part of the Algarve, and also projects in Spain, on the Tagus river side.

Of Spanish environment minister Teresa Ribera’s nomination for an EU Commissioner position, Carvalho said “we will gain an ally in the water and energy areas” and praised the “excellent collaboration” with her Spanish counterpart.