The European Commission’s upcoming review of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) acts as a turning point for European environmental governance. As the EU accelerates efforts to secure critical raw materials for the energy and digital transition, as announced in its RESourceEU Action Plan and reflected in the MoU it recently signed with the United States, mining actors are intensifying pressure to ease water protection rules, particularly in connection with permitting procedures for mining projects considered strategic to European competitiveness and autonomy.
This briefing argues that the proposed “simplification” of EU water law risks generating governance backsliding. While the EU initially sought to strengthen corporate accountability through instruments like the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), though subsequently weakened by the Omnibus I package, recent intents of reform through the environmental Omnibus package simultaneously weaken both public environmental protections and private sector due diligence obligations. Taken together, these developments risk producing a “double dilution” effect: environmental benchmarks become more flexible at the same time as corporate incentives to prevent and remedy harm are reduced.
The implications extend beyond Europe. Because EU demand shapes global mineral supply chains, changes in European environmental governance also affect mining practices in producing countries where regulatory enforcement remains limited, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In this context, the review of the WFD raises broader questions about the coherence and credibility of the EU’s sustainability agenda in the era of critical mineral competition.
The EU Water Framework Directive under review – and lobbying from the mining sector
Adopted in 2000, the WFD is the cornerstone of the EU’s water governance. Built around the principle of non-deterioration, it requires Member States to prevent the worsening of water bodies and to achieve “good ecological and chemical status” through integrated river basin management. Although the Directive initially set 2015 as the target date for compliance, implementation delays led to two additional planning cycles, meaning that the next River Basin Management Plans due in 2027 will provide a more definitive assessment of implementation across the EU. In 2022, the Commission adopted a proposal to revise the lists of pollutants, and some other amendments were also proposed, waiting to be integrated.
In May 2026, the EU Commission published a guidance document to help reduce the uncertainties around procedures and assessment criteria to perform environmental assessments required by the Water Framework Directive. It had also previously announced that it would undertake a formal review of the Directive in Q2 of 2026 to give more concessions to mining companies. This review takes place in a broader context of growing political pressure from the mining industry to align environmental regulation with the EU’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy objectives. Industry groups such as Euromines have argued that existing water protection rules slow down permitting procedures and create uncertainty for strategic extraction projects. These demands are closely linked to the EU’s industrial policy agenda, including the Critical Raw Materials Act, which sets objectives for domestic extraction.
At the same time, the WFD revision has generated opposition from environmental organizations, several Member States, and MEPs. They argue that weakening core principles such as non-deterioration risks undermines one of the EU’s central environmental safeguards, while arguing that the WFD already provides several possibilities for derogations from the objective of achieving good water body status and non-deterioration. The debate illustrates a broader tension between industrial policy and environmental protection in the context of the energy and digital transition, where extractive activities are increasingly labeled as strategic but remain highly water-intensive and are potentially harmful to the environment.
Shifting waters: deregulation, mining, and growing pressure on water resources
Mining has a dual impact on water resources. On the one hand, it affects water quantity. Large-scale operations require significant volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, and waste management. This can lead to the depletion of groundwater reserves and the diversion of surface water, often in regions already facing water stress. The result is increased competition between industrial use, agriculture, and domestic consumption, with distributional consequences for local communities. On the other hand, mining affects water quality. The extraction and processing of minerals can release heavy metals and other pollutants into surrounding water bodies, while acid mine drainage and poorly managed tailings facilities can cause long-term contamination of rivers and aquifers. These impacts frequently persist well beyond the operational life of a mine, creating environmental liabilities that are difficult and costly to address. Water pollution linked to mining, therefore, constitutes a long-term structural risk for water resources and communities relying on them.
In this context, the “simplification” of the Water Framework Directive may have implications that go beyond administrative efficiency. More flexible permitting rules, extended compliance timelines, or softer interpretations of ecological objectives can lower the effective level of environmental protection applied to water-intensive sectors such as mining. As extraction is increasingly framed as strategic for the energy transition, such flexibility risks normalizing a higher tolerance for water-related impacts. Although the WFD applies within the EU, these dynamics are not confined to its borders. European demand for critical raw materials plays a central role in shaping global extraction patterns, particularly in resource-rich regions.
Double dilution: weakening water governance and corporate accountability
The relationship between the EU Water Framework Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive illustrates how the EU’s environmental governance model relies on the interaction between public regulation and corporate accountability. The WFD establishes binding obligations for Member States to protect water bodies and achieve “good ecological and chemical status”. The CSDDD, by contrast, does not define environmental thresholds itself. It operationalizes existing standards, under EU, national, or international law, by requiring companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remedy environmental harms across their operations and value chains.
Taken together, the weakening of both the WFD and the CSDDD risks producing a “double dilution” effect. On the one hand, environmental benchmarks themselves become more flexible through eased permitting procedures, extended compliance timelines, or softer interpretations of non-deterioration obligations. On the other hand, corporate incentives and responsibilities to identify, prevent, and remedy environmental harm are reduced through narrower due diligence obligations and weaker liability provisions. This weakens both pillars of the EU’s environmental governance model. Public authorities define and monitor environmental standards, while corporate due diligence complements these regulatory frameworks by requiring companies to manage environmental risks and impacts throughout their operations and value chains. In practice, this creates incentives and responsibilities for companies to align their activities with EU-level environmental expectations, including in jurisdictions where enforcement remains limited.
The revision of the CSDDD under the Omnibus I package, combined with the prospective review of the WFD, therefore raises concerns about a simultaneous weakening of both public and private governance instruments. With the narrowing of due diligence obligations and the risk of environmental standards becoming more flexible in application, the EU’s capacity to project environmental norms along global supply chains may be reduced.
Beyond the EU’s borders, water governance and the DRC mining sector
In mineral-producing countries such as the DRC, where regulatory enforcement remains limited, the CSDDD’s due diligence requirements could constitute a source of pressure on EU companies as well as companies integrated into European value chains. In former Katanga, where industrial cobalt and copper extraction has expanded significantly over the past decade, mining activities have frequently been associated with water contamination, groundwater depletion, and poorly managed tailings. These risks closely mirror the types of environmental harms addressed by EU water policy. However, in practice, local enforcement capacity remains uneven, while access to safe drinking water for surrounding communities is often limited.
In this context, weakened due diligence obligations may reduce incentives and responsibilities for EU-based or EU-related companies to identify, mitigate, and report water-related risks throughout their supply chains. If compliance obligations become more limited, responsibility increasingly shifts to domestic regulatory frameworks, such as environmental permitting systems and environmental impact assessment regimes, that may lack the institutional capacity, resources, or political leverage necessary to enforce environmental protections effectively. This can increase the risk of environmental harm by reducing the identification, prevention, and mitigation of adverse impacts while diminishing transparency and accountability within supply chain reporting.
At the same time, EU influence should not be overstated. Mining governance in the DRC is shaped by a wide range of actors, including national authorities, Chinese and other non-EU operators, and international financial institutions. Nevertheless, EU regulation continues to function as an important benchmark for companies supplying European markets and for ESG-oriented investment frameworks. With the increasing demand for critical raw materials, weakening both environmental safeguards and due diligence obligations risks reinforcing existing governance asymmetries within global mineral supply chains.
Policy recommendations
For the European Union
- Preserve the Water Framework Directive’s non-deterioration principle: the review should maintain the Directive’s core environmental objectives and avoid widening existing derogations, including for projects designated as strategic under the Critical Raw Materials Act. Any alignment between environmental and raw materials policy should not result in a lowering of water protection standards.
- Better reflect external water dependencies in EU raw materials and trade policy: EU policy frameworks on critical raw materials could more systematically consider water-related risks embedded in imported raw materials, including through the consideration of water footprints and transboundary impacts along supply chains.
- Strengthen the implementation of environmental due diligence across EU-linked supply chains: the EU should reinforce the application of environmental due diligence requirements across mineral supply chains connected to the EU market, including where activities are carried out by non-EU companies. This should include systematic consideration of water-related impacts.
- Link EU external investments more explicitly to water governance outcomes: through instruments such as Global Gateway, EU external financing could further support water monitoring systems and environmental governance capacities in mineral-producing regions.
For companies
- Strengthen water-related due diligence across mineral supply chains: companies are expected to and should identify and address water-related risks across their operations and value chains, especially in water-stressed and high-risk contexts.
- Protect community access to water: mining companies should ensure that their activities do not compromise access to safe and sufficient water for local communities and should establish effective grievance mechanisms where impacts occur.
- Improve transparency on water use and pollution: public reporting on water extraction, pollution risks, and mitigation measures could be further strengthened to improve comparability and accountability across the sector.
Photo: In November 2022, the breach of the Williamson diamond mine’s tailing dam in Tanzania released a large mud flow onto houses, farmland and the water supply of several villages.
Further reading
This briefing was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of the editorial is the sole responsibility of IPIS and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
