A high-level conference, entitled Building a Water Smart Society through Blue Diplomacy, organized by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in partnership with the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), Water Europe and Veolia, brought together European and Bulgarian stakeholders, policymakers, industry representatives, organised civil society, academia and media, on the 16th April in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Following the ministerial plenary session, the first part of the programme was a panel discussion on the need for an EU Blue Deal and a water-smart strategy.
The speakers agreed that the views of the sector and stakeholders (service providers, researchers, industry, financiers, etc.) should be steered towards these strategic directions, the Blue Deal.
To deliver on the specific and comprehensive Blue Deal initiative implemented through Blue Diplomacy, the EU needs to mobilise all resources, especially those at Member State level, to create a workable set of innovative technological solutions as a source for "knowledge transfer" and sharing of best practices that will foster transboundary cooperation on water issues.
Dr Károly Kovács PhD participated in the afternoon panel discussion on promoting transboundary water cooperation. Drawing on the historical links between Bulgaria and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the session also looked at the Bulgarian perspective and concluded that water is not enough to be taken as one element of the Green Deal: a change of scale is needed at EU level. It is important that water finally takes a central role and is adopted as a strategy in the EU Blue Deal, as a complement to the EU Green Deal and the UN SDGs.
Dr Károly Kovács, PhD, as a member of several EU-level water-related institutions, associations and organisations (JPI, European Innovation Partnership, EU Sustainable Finance Platform, EU Strategic Coordination Group, etc.), highlighted the importance of a holistic and coherent approach.
He stressed that the recognition and acknowledgement of the full value of water (social, economic, environmental) is the basis for the success of both the Blue Deal and the programmes already announced (Green Deal, SDGs, etc.).
Separation and a visible and tangible value must be given to both water resources (the charge of the water resource is less than 1 euro cent per cubic metre across Europe) and water management services, whose charges in Europe include only a very limited or no cost of infrastructure maintenance.
He highlighted that this requires ongoing professional, social and political dialogue and active partnership.
