In the context of the preparation of the Blueprint EC Communication to be released in November 2012, the European Commission has developed several actions to support this initiative. One of them is the consultation with stakeholders about their input and views of the future of Europe’s water. This is a twofold process, on the one hand, the European Commission will release a Fitness Check document analyzing the current status of the water policy in the European Union following some stakeholders consultations till the end of 2011 and on the other hand the European Commission will develop the policy recommendations and options to be included in the Blueprint communication supported by public consultations till June 2012.

The European Water Partnership as part of the LIFE co-funded work program, has set up a series of workshops in 2011 in order to compile and draft a policy paper with the policy options and recommendations derived from stakeholders that are not involved/aware of the process and representing an heterogeneous group from the users point of view, mainly industry, agriculture and consumers. The policy paper will input directly the Commission process of consultations by having a direct impact on the final policy options and recommendations included in the Blueprint.

The first workshop took place on the 5^th of October in Brussels with the participation of about 30 stakeholders. The European Commission presented the state of the art on the Blueprint and the EIEP presented the results of the first outcomes of the fitness check consultation. This workshop served as a basis for drafting the first conclusions and the first policy options and recommendations.

The second workshop will be focused on finalizing the policy paper with policy options and recommendations ready to input the consultation process of the European Commission. For the year 2012, EWP will continue this process with a deeper analysis of the proposed options by organizing concrete policy roundtables on each of the seven thematic areas selected by the European Commission to develop concrete measures.

As part of the Blueprint and in relation to another initiative started by EWP and in the framework of the LIFE program as well, the European Think-Tank on Climate Change Adaptation in the water-energy linked sector, the second workshop will include a general presentation of the results of this initiative and the way they can be included in the Blueprint exercise since the Climate Change is one of the third pillars the Blueprint is build on.

Click here to see Agenda of first workshop

Click here to see Report of the first workshop

Click here to see Agenda of second workshop

This initiative is supported by: