Water Security in the Climate Policies of the European Union: The Growing Importance of Groundwater Resources
Water Security in the Climate Policies of the European Union: The Growing Importance of Groundwater Resources

Summary/Abstract: Water security has become an increasingly important component of climate, environmental, and socio-economic security in the European Union, as climate change and intensifying anthropogenic pressures disrupt hydrological regimes and exacerbate water scarcity. Within this context, groundwater resources acquire particular significance because of their dominant role in drinking water supply, their stabilising function in the hydrological cycle, and their capacity to buffer the impacts of droughts and other extreme hydroclimatic events. The article addresses the question of how groundwater is positioned within EU climate and water policies and whether existing regulatory and strategic frameworks are adequate to ensure long-term water security under conditions of increasing climatic variability. It examines groundwater not only as an environmental component requiring protection, but as a strategic resource underpinning climate resilience, economic stability, and social security across Member States. The analysis is based on a qualitative review of EU legal acts, strategic policy documents, and recent scientific literature on groundwater, climate change, and water governance. Particular attention is given to the coherence between policy objectives and implementation practices, as well as to cross-sectoral interactions involving agriculture, spatial planning, urban development, and the energy transition. The findings indicate that, despite strong legal protection of groundwater quality at the EU level, significant weaknesses persist in quantitative groundwater management, abstraction control, protection of recharge areas, and integration of groundwater considerations into climate adaptation and sectoral policies. These gaps contribute to growing pressures on groundwater systems and intensify conflicts between competing water users. The article concludes that groundwater systems function as a practical indicator of the effectiveness of water-climate policy integration in the European Union. Strengthening groundwater governance through improved monitoring, the protection of recharge zones, enhanced abstraction management, and the systematic use of hydrogeological knowledge in long-term planning is identified as a necessary condition for achieving durable water security and climate resilience in the EU.

• Details
• Contents