​Last Friday (March 22nd), CoR's NAT commission debated and overwhelmingly approved the opinion "Creating an EU Blue Deal from an agriculture and rural development perspective across EU regions" drafted by the rapporteur, and the European Alliance (EA) group's president, Karl Vanlouwe, member of the Flemish Parliament.

The opinion draws a lot from the Flemish Government's own Blue Deal strategy which, as Victor Dries, the expert assisting in its elaboration, said, was necessary to develop given that "out of the last 6 years, five summers have been dry" for Flanders. Blue Deal strategies, like the Flemish one, are important in getting the environment, agriculture, and industry on a path of collaboration to guarantee sustainable water management.

The opinion highlights the numerous water-related risks that regions face. NAT Members therefore call for the creation of an EU Blue Deal, which would complement the EU Green Deal and constitute a long-term strategy aimed at establishing sectoral coherence on water management, climate-change adaptation and reducing the risk of disasters.  
 
Rapporteur Karl Vanlouwe said: “Creating a comprehensive Blue Deal as an addition towards the current Green Deal is needed to restore our resilience towards droughts and floodings through nature-based solutions. This ‘blue’ shift should be made with an emphasis on innovation, supporting vulnerable sectors and engaging with local stakeholders in the implementation process and listening to local needs. A shift through bottom-up integration is needed to reach a widely supported outcome.

The voting of the opinion in the NAT commission was particularly symbolic given that it took place during World Water Day.