Freshwater scientists urge action to defend Europe’s water protections
18 February, 2026
Europe’s environmental safeguards are currently facing unprecedented pressure. Under the banner of “simplification” and “cutting red tape”, key laws designed to protect clean water, biodiversity, and public health risk being weakened.
The scientific and freshwater community has an important voice in this moment. You can support efforts to defend Europe’s nature laws by signing and sharing the Hands Off Nature petition: https://handsoffnature.eu/
Within its first week, the petition gathered more than 130,000 signatures, demonstrating strong public support for maintaining robust environmental protections. Continued engagement from scientists and freshwater professionals is essential to ensure that policy decisions remain grounded in scientific evidence and the urgent need to protect freshwater ecosystems.
Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened globally. This is a critical moment to stand up for the strong, science-based legislation that protects them.
Why is support for freshwater ecosystems so urgent?
Freshwater and coastal habitats are biodiversity hotspots. The 0.01% of the planet that makes up our lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, wetlands and bogs provide essential ecosystem services such as food and water, and recreation opportunities for billions of people. They are also essential for nature and wildlife. Human impact has degraded freshwater ecosystems, to the extent that they are now among the most threatened habitats on Earth.
The decades since 1970 have seen an 85% collapse in freshwater species populations due to habitat loss and pollution [i] resulting in the alarming observation that fewer than half of Europe’s water bodies are in good health. Additionally, the recovery of Europe’s freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt since 2010.[ii] Scientists and conservation organisations list pollution reduction among key priorities to halt freshwater biodiversity loss.[iii]
The biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems are are among the most threatened habitats on Earth.
“FBA strongly endorses the ‘Hands Off Nature’ petition. At a time of unprecedented pressures on biodiversity, we would encourage our members and the wider scientific community to ‘use your voices’ to back this important campaign to protect Europe’s environmental laws, but also to support wider efforts to conserve and rejuvenate freshwaters. We can all be advocates for positive change, based on evidence and knowledge, on matters impacting the health of freshwater ecosystems.”
Update on the scientists' statement of support for updated EU water pollution standards
In September 2025, freshwater scientists from across the world issued an urgent statement supporting the swift and robust update of EU water pollution standards under the Environmental Quality Standards Directive, alongside related amendments to the Water Framework Directive and the Groundwater Directive. Signed by more than 600 scientists, the statement expressed deep concern about the deteriorating health of freshwater ecosystems and called for decisive action to safeguard Europe’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater.
The statement urged the European Commission, European Parliament, and Council of the European Union to prioritise freshwater protection during negotiations and to uphold the environmental objectives established under the Water Framework Directive – Europe’s cornerstone legislation for protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems.
On 23 September 2025, EU institutions reached political agreement on the Commission’s proposal – nearly three years after it was first introduced – to update the list of priority pollutants that Member States must monitor and control. This represents an important step forward, ensuring that regulatory standards better reflect current scientific understanding of chemical risks to freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem function. Formal adoption is expected in early 2026.
Ongoing threats to the Water Framework Directive
Despite this progress, pressures to weaken the Water Framework Directive continue. Industrial lobbying has focused on expanding exemptions, delaying timelines, and reducing regulatory ambition. These efforts have already begun to influence policy direction.
In December 2025, the European Commission announced its intention to review and revise the Directive in the second quarter of 2026, citing the need to facilitate access to critical raw materials within the EU.
This followed calls from EuroMines (EU’s mining lobby) to weaken environmental legislation. Proposals to expand exemptions, delay implementation timelines, or reduce ambition risk undermining one of Europe’s most important legal frameworks for protecting freshwater ecosystems.
Why your ongoing support is needed
The Water Framework Directive is the cornerstone of freshwater protection in Europe. It underpins ecological monitoring, restoration, and catchment management, and provides the legal framework necessary to halt and reverse freshwater biodiversity loss. Weakening its provisions would threaten decades of scientific progress and jeopardise the resilience of freshwater ecosystems already under severe pressure from pollution, abstraction, and climate change.
Freshwaters ecosystems need you to take action! Please support the Hands Off Nature petition
The Freshwater Biological Association encourages members of the freshwater science community, practitioners, and all those who care about freshwater ecosystems to support and share the Hands Off Nature petition.
The Hand Off Nature partners
The Hands Off Nature petition is a partnership initiative including EEB, WWF, Birdlife International and ClientEarth.
EEB (European Environmental Bureau) is the largest network of environmental citizens’ organisations in Europe, with over 190 member organisations in 41 countries, and representing some 30 million individual members and supporters.
WWF EU has a mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. The European Policy Office contributes to this by advocating for strong EU environmental policies on sustainable development, nature conservation, climate and energy, marine protection, sustainable finance and external action.
BirdLife International is the only global partnership conserving birds and all life on our planet, made up of 124 worldwide conservation organisations.
ClientEarth is team of lawyers and policy experts dedicated to protecting life on Earth.
Interested in finding out more?
EEB article: EU Council adopts improved water quality standards – but weakens cornerstone EU law to protect water, 17 February, 2026.
FBA article: Scientists' statement of support for updated EU water pollution standards, 17 September, 2025.
References
[i] WWF, (2024), 85% collapse in Freshwater species populations since 1970 -https://wwflpr.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/2024-lpr-executive-summary.pdf
[ii] Haase, P., Bowler, D.E., Baker, N.J. et al. The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt. Nature 620, 582–588 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06400-1
[iii] Tickner et al., (2020) Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss: An Emergency Recovery Plan, BioScience, Vol. 70:4, pp. 330–342, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa002
