The rising security salience of water-related problems is very likely to influence the EU’s international positioning, as well as the planning and very conduct of its overall external policies, in the next decade or so.
From a general, strategic viewpoint, the EU has progressively developed its own understanding of water-related challenges as part of the potential, negative impacts of climate change on international peace and security. While the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS) had already ‘predicted’ that “competition for natural resources - notably water – […] is likely to create further turbulence and migratory movements in various regions”287, the subsequent ‘Report on the Implementation of the
ESS’ in 2008 underlined that “increasing tensions over water and raw materials […] require multilateral solutions”, clearly also mentioning water as a key challenge for regional stability and cooperation with the EU in areas such as the Southern Mediterranean and Central Asia.288 Earlier in
2008, the (then) High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, together with the European Commission, had also released a key paper on “Climate Change and International Security”, which clearly identified water shortages as a crucial threat for international stability, notably in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, as well as Southern and Central Asia. They also tabled a number of policy recommendations in the areas of EU-level capacities, multilateral engagement and cooperation and political dialogue with third countries.289
Importantly, following an earlier Gymnich meeting on this topic in September 2012290, in July 2013
the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) issued its first-ever ‘Conclusions on EU Water Diplomacy’ and authoritatively recognised, in the very first paragraph of the Conclusions, that “during the next decade, tensions and conflicts over access to water are likely to become more frequent and could endanger stability and security in many parts of the world. This could also have a direct bearing on European interests, as on international peace and security”.291
Such a high-level political realisation of the wide-ranging implications of water-related challenges for European security interests was further reflected in two important documents in the realm of EU foreign and security policy. Firstly, the Report ahead of the European Council by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP) in May 2015 stated that “ensuring access to energy, water or raw materials are all critical functions for European stability and security” and added that “build[ing] climate change resilient European defence can also play an important role in addressing environmental and natural https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/10/drought-helped-caused-syrias-war-will-climate-change-bring-more-like- it/; last accessed on: 11 November 2015).
287 Council of the European Union (2003), “A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy”, European Union, 12
September 2003, Brussels, p. 3 (available at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsupload/78367.pdf; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
288 Council of the European Union (2008), “Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy: Providing Security in a
Changing World”, S407/08, 11 December 2008, pp. 8 and 10-11 (available at:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/reports/104630.pdf; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
289 European Union (2008), “Climate Change and International Security: Paper from the High Representative and the European
Commission to the European Council”, S113/08, Brussels, 14 March 2008 (available at:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/reports/99387.pdf; last accessed on: 14 November 2015).
290 European External Action Service (2015), “Gymnich: Ministers Discuss Syrian Crisis, Water and Education”, 7 September 2015, Brussels
(available at: http://eeas.europa.eu/top_stories/2012/070912_gymnich_cyprus_en.htm; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
291 Council of the European Union, “Council Conclusions on EU Water Diplomacy”, 22 July 2013, Brussels, p. 1 (available at:
74 resources threats”.292 Secondly, and more importantly, in her ‘Strategic Review’ in July 2015, in
preparation for an ‘EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy’ by June 2016, the HR/VP noted that “climate change and resource scarcity, coupled with demographic growth, contribute to international conflicts and are expected to do so even more in the future”, highlighting that “water management has become more contentious” and explicitly emphasising the Nile river basins and Central Asia as cases in point.293
There seems to be a growing understanding inside the EU of the importance of water security for regional and global stability, which in a way also mirrors similar processes of strategic thinking outside Europe, e.g., at the United Nations294 or in the US.295 However, the more concrete issue of
the progressive ‘operationalisation’ of the climate change-water-security nexus in EU policies still remains in many respects harder to achieve, due to the complexity of the issues at stake and the variability (or even unpredictability) of local conditions, actors and circumstances.
Nonetheless, in late 2013, the HR/VP and the European Commission issued a Joint Communication on “The EU’s Comprehensive Approach to External Conflict and Crises”296, which aims at maximising
the effectiveness of the EU’s broader crisis response capacities by combining all its instruments and resources, spanning the diplomatic, security, defence, financial, trade, development cooperation and humanitarian aid fields. The Communication covers all stages of the cycle of conflict or other external crises, through early warning and preparedness, conflict prevention, crisis response and management to early recovery, stabilisation and peacebuilding. While the implementation of such an ambitious, yet much-needed policy approach admittedly requires a great deal of coordination across policy areas and among all the actors involved, both within (EU institutions and bodies, and member states) and outside the EU, the comprehensive approach has the potential to provide an indispensable policy framework to successfully address the impact of water challenges on the stability and security of many areas of the world, as fully recognised in the Communication. A systematic consideration in the future of climate change and resource scarcity, including water, and concrete application of the EU’s comprehensive approach in targeted regions, particularly but not solely in Africa, is therefore essential.
More generally, stronger awareness of, and longer-term adaptation to, the widely conceived security impacts of the water challenge, both close to and far from Europe’s borders, as well as its progressive embedment in the EU’s strategic planning and various crisis response mechanisms (including in the
292 High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice-President of the Commission/ Head of the European
Defence Agency (EDA), “Report ahead of the European Council by the High Representative and Vice-President and Head of the European Defence Agency”, 8 May 2015, Brussels (available at: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/documents/pdf/report-ahead_european- defence-agency.pdf; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
293 High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice-President of the Commission, “Strategic Review - The
European Union in a Changing Global Environment”, 25 June 2015, Brussels, p. 7 (available at:
https://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en/strategic-review-european-union-changing-global-environment; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
294 United Nations (2011), “Security Council, in Statement, Says ‘Contextual Information’ on Possible Security Implications of Climate
Change Important When Climate Impacts Drive Conflict”, Security Council Meetings Coverage SC/10332, New York (available at: http://www.un.org/press/en/2011/sc10332.doc.htm; last accessed on: 13 November 2015).
295 For an overview, see for example: US Department of State, “Water Issues” (available at: http://www.state.gov/e/oes/water/; last
accessed on: 13 November 2015), as well as key US policy documents such as: US Department of Defense (2014), “Quadrennial Defense Review 2014”, Department of Defense (available at: http://archive.defense.gov/pubs/2014_Quadrennial_Defense_Review.pdf; last accessed on: 18 November 2015).
296 European Commission and HR/VP (2013), “Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council: The EU's Comprehensive
Approach to External Conflict and Crises”, JOIN(2013) 30 final, 11 December 2014, Brussels (available at: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/statements/docs/2013/131211_03_en.pdf; last accessed on: 14 November 2015).
75 specific sector of disaster management), seem desirable and should be pursued in the near future.297
This has to build on the political momentum offered by the above-mentioned, ongoing preparations for an ‘EU Global Strategy’, given the complementary, and comparatively more visible, involvement of the EU and its member states in distinctively water diplomacy matters, which will be addressed in the next section.
6.2 WATER DIPLOMACY: A COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE TO TRANSBOUNDARY