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0.2 Key messages

  • The Water Framework Directive has the objective to achieve good status of water by 2015. As good status is also associated with near natural ecological conditions, this objective is also interpreted as achieving sustainability for water.
  • Currently a large share of surface and groundwater bodies in EU-27, United Kingdom, and Norway are not achieving good status as required by the Water Framework Directive, in part due to pressures from agricultural activities. Although point source pollution, nitrogen surplus and water abstraction have been reduced, diffuse pollution of nutrients and chemicals from agriculture remain a significant pressure to one third of surface and groundwater bodies in Europe, and are a main pressure to Europe’s seas. Water abstraction for irrigation accounts for up to 80% of water abstracted in in parts of Europe, and water storage, drainage and land reclamation projects are linked to considerable hydromorphological pressures. Climate change exacerbates those pressures due to increasing temperatures, and altered and less predictable precipitation patterns.  In combination these pressures are both of risk to the environment, but also to the agricultural production itself, if resources become critically scarce.
  • Due to the close link between pressures and agricultural activities, achieving sustainability for water and Water Framework Directive objectives needs to build on expanding the uptake of sustainable agricultural practices. Such practices also enhance the resilience of the agricultural production to climate pressures, and would also benefit biodiversity, but may reduce agricultural yields.
  • Consumer, industry, and policy demands within food and energy systems has a large influence on the agricultural production and specific choices of farmers, hence on our ability to reach environmental targets. Managing sustainably in this context requires balancing the need for affordable products, social wellbeing and fairness, and environmental protection while acknowledging trade-offs.
  • A wide variety of management measures exists within the EU policy framework to tackle agricultural pressures on the water environment. To date, most measures implemented have sought to improve water management and increase the efficiency of resource use in agriculture. This has resulted in significant improvements, but more ambitious uptake of sustainable agricultural production to reduce total resource use is needed. To achieve this transition, ambitious policies are needed as fundamental changes in the agricultural sector will be required.
  • Greater coherence is needed between EU environmental policies and the sectoral EU policies supporting agricultural production. Recent decades have seen improved integration of water targets in the Common Agricultural Policies. However, future agricultural policies need to be more ambitious on the scale of change needed in production systems. More systematic attention is needed to the ways CAP regulatory and incentive instruments support transition in farming production coherent with environmental goals, especially because the CAP is the most important fund for achieving WFD objectives.
  • With its ambitious policy initiatives, including the proposed EU Climate Law, Adaptation Strategy, Biodiversity Strategy, the Farm to Fork strategy, and the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the European Green Deal has articulated the ambition to move Europe on to a more sustainable development path, and will need to consider the relationship between the agricultural sector and its environmental impacts.

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