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Ms JAGER has been working in the European Commission since 2005, starting as Director for Security in DG Energy and Transport and later being Director for international energy and transport files and coordination, as well as being Head of Cabinet of the Transport Commissioner. She is now Deputy Director-General for the DIrectorate-General for International Partenships (DG INTPA). Before joining the Commission Ms JAGER was more than a decade working on the accession of Slovenia to the EU for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and she was the first Deputy Permanent Representative (Coreper I) of Slovenia to the EU.
- How does the new project « P2P for BO » fit in with the International Partnership’s main mission, which is to formulate the EU’s international partnership and development policy, with the ultimate aim of reducing poverty?
The EU considers water as a key driver underpinning all Sustainable Development Goals. After disbursing EUR 2.6 billion in the previous programming period (2014-2020), the EU has already committed EUR 1.4 billion in 2021-2023. But the European contribution to water goes far beyond financial support. It offers partnerships, empowerment, and ambition by using Global Gateway investments to reduce poverty and to make water security a global reality.
Firstly, partnerships. We know that shared waters, from the world’s great transboundary rivers to the smallest springs, can bring countries and communities together. Stronger water partnerships, whether across geographic or sectoral boundaries, depend on good partners – among regional, national and local authorities, civil society, business and investors. Such partnerships catalyse governance, skills, and finance. By making them work together, the aim is to close the water financing gap towards reaching SDG 6.
That is the reason why empowerment matters. The EU works at all scales to improve the water cooperation landscape. At global level, by supporting the enlargement of Water Convention parties or at regional level with two Team Europe Initiatives promoting transboundary water management in Africa and Central Asia. In such case, lake and river basin organisations have a pivotal role in orchestrating policies at watershed level, making them significant players implementing integrated water resources management frameworks.
The ambition of the EU in supporting peer-to-peer learning between lake and river basin organisations is to make them share effective strategies, practices, and tools. The InterAgencias project implemented by OiEau between Brazilian and French basin agencies is a good example. This project provided water managers from both countries space for collaboration to elaborate drought and flood prevention plans, thus contributing to communities’ resilience to affront natural disasters brought about by climate change.
- How exchanges on their respective best practices, failed experiments etc, will help BO and other stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of their water resources management, contribute to ensure sustainable development and promote democracy?
The exchange of best practices and failed experiments, provide lake and river basin organisations valuable insights and lessons learned by practitioners, with solutions tested by their own peers. This can help them avoid common pitfalls and implement efficient strategies. This is what happened in the Bandama river basin in Côte d’Ivoire. The Loire-Bretagne water basin agency supported the national authorities in the elaboration of the watershed development and management scheme. This partnership allowed identifying adapted governance mechanisms to plan action at basin level.
In Europe, the geography speaks for itself. With 60% of the territory being covered by transboundary river basins, hydrographic realities have forced European countries to cooperate. What we have learned from this, is that when you manage shared resources in a cooperative manner, you are building peace and prosperity, as with the Danube, flowing through 19 countries.
To harness the full potential of water cooperation, the adoption of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in 2000 has provided the EU with one of the most advanced environmental legislations in the world. The WFD has translated into regulation the central idea that the EU must protect and restore freshwater ecosystems to secure a sufficient supply of good quality water for humans and nature. By setting those objectives and putting together a framework to measure progress against them, the WFD has given water managers across Europe a common language and reference integrating the entire water cycle. The introduction of river basin districts which extend beyond administrative or political boundaries have created a governance system that puts water first and encourages cooperation with multiple stakeholders. The enforcement of these districts has created new democratic spaces for countries to discuss the way they intend to manage their shared water bodies.
Promoting water democracy in this case means involving a wide range of stakeholders in the decision-making process to identify a way forward. This inclusive approach ensures that the voices of different groups are heard and considered, leading to more transparent and accountable water management solutions. Solutions that will last as they are owned by people.
- INBO and OiEau teams see this project as genuine recognition of their expertise. Why did DG INTPA choose us to lead and coordinate this ambitious project?
The reasons were twofold. First, INBO has one of the most extensive networks of lake and river basin organisations in the world. Second, the EU has a positive track record with OiEau in implementing the Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership. The objective in encouraging peer-to-peer learning between lake and river basin organisations is to combine these dynamics more broadly. This ambition fits within a wider context since Team Europe (European Commission, European Investment Bank, EU Member States) is making together over €1.1 billion available for transboundary water cooperation to work on improved governance, knowledge, and investments in 18 major transboundary water basins across Africa and Central Asia.
This means that to implement SDG 6.5 on integrated water resources management – at all levels – lake and river basin organisations are essential actors. The full deployment of their capacities and resources is the only way to have fully operational arrangements for water basins. The peer-to-peer learning project intensifies the efforts already led by the EU in strengthening the global water cooperation value chain. By using EU directives and UN convention principles as benchmark references, lake and river basin organisations are provided means to develop among themselves tailored governance frameworks, strategic plans, digital tools, or spaces for dialogue.
The experience acquired in implementing the EU Water Initiative Plus in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, is a good example to build on. Several examples have proven the appetite from these countries to reform their water policies and implement the EU water acquis, with adapted knowledge sharing mechanisms. The organisation of national policy dialogues allowed introducing nature-based solutions as new instruments in some river basin management plans inspired from EU examples and adapted to local realities.
The purpose of the peer-to-peer learning contract is to investigate the needs of lake and river basin organisations to apply best-fit solutions rather than disconnected best-practices. Since IWRM policies are designed to reflect the complexity and diversity of water-related issues, the simultaneous application of their objectives is too often arduous. By having a problem-driven approach to water cooperation relying on the ground experience of water basin organisations, our work can focus on areas where change is feasible through collective action.
Many examples have proven that knowledge-sharing between countries opens the way to consensus building, ultimately unlocking political debates, and creating on the longer run stronger grounds for water cooperation. The EU will pursue these efforts with INBO and OiEau.