The EU’s flagship water law is under threat amid a concerted lobbying blitz from the mining industry.
New analysis by DeSmog reveals sector meetings with EU officials tripled in the year before the release of a European Commission strategy document pledging to “review and revise” the Water Framework Directive.
The Commission’s ResourceEU Action plan, which was published in December, dismayed campaigners with its claims to address “potential bottlenecks” for new mining projects sourcing critical raw materials — strategically important minerals used in energy, tech and defence.
Ahead of an upcoming consultation on the review, expected to launch this month, critics fear that opening up the directive for revision will result in a weakening of regulations that curb pollution from mining and other industrial projects harmful to waterways.
The window for discussion is tight. The Commission has pledged to issue guidance on the revision by the end of this month, with changes to be agreed by the end of June.
Europe’s mining lobbyists — representing a sector worth an estimated €126 billion — argue that loosening water protection regulations is key to ramping up extraction of rare metals and minerals, which are increasingly in demand for use in electric car batteries, solar and wind energies.
Campaigners are concerned that the changes sought by industry will see member states granted new exemptions that expedite the approval of polluting critical mining projects which can devastate the health of nearby rivers and lakes, due to the release of toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
An EU Commission spokesperson said the executive body would “review and revise the directive making it more efficient and impactful — building on stakeholders’ input and experiences in different European countries”.
“We will consider possible legislative changes to promote circularity and access to critical raw materials in the EU while protecting the environment and human health,” they added.
However Greens MEP Jutta Paulus, who sits on the European Parliament’s committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), warns that undermining regulations under the revision would send “a devastating signal” to the public about the EU’s priorities.
“Weakening flagship legislation to accelerate extractive activities risks communicating that environmental standards are negotiable when industrial interests are strong enough,” she told DeSmog.
“It would also contradict the logic of the European Green Deal,” Paulus said, referencing the EU strategy to slash emissions by over half by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
“The green transition is supposed to align climate neutrality with environmental integrity – not trade one crisis for another. Strategic autonomy in raw materials must not come at the expense of Europe’s water security.”
Meetings Surge
The mining sector accelerated its lobbying in Brussels in the months before the Commission launched its action plan, DeSmog’s analysis shows.
Members of the sector’s leading trade association, Euromines, held 108 meetings with Commission representatives in 2025, compared to 30 the previous year, according to the EU’s transparency register.
DeSmog counted at least eight meetings directly related to the ReSourceEU Action Plan, and a further 19 on critical raw minerals and two on water. This compares to a total of nine on these topics from the year before — a 220 percent increase of meetings on those subjects.
The figure represents an average of 2.7 meetings per member — double those held with representatives of the European Environmental Bureau, the leading European non-profit coalition working to protect environmental laws.
Swedish companies and trade bodies were among the most active lobbyists in that period, holding six meetings on mining with the cabinet of Jessika Roswall, the Swedish commissioner responsible for environment and water resilience.
State-owned mining company LKAB held 17 meetings throughout 2025, including three with Roswall’s cabinet, records show. Roswall was also listed as the keynote speaker at a metals industry event in February.
Roswall is also set to chair a closed-door meeting on the WFD review in Stockholm with representatives from mining companies LKAB and Boliden, as well as industry group Svemin. Environmental groups have warned that the event — originally scheduled for 2 March but later postponed — was dominated by industry representatives, while civil society groups were invited only as observers.
A spokesperson for Euromines said its engagement with the European Commission “reflects the high number of legislative and policy initiatives affecting the raw materials sector over the past years.” “Ongoing digital/green transitions” and “geopolitical and defence considerations” had contributed to the uptick, they said.
“The increase in meetings therefore reflects the complexity of this legislative workload, with the aim of providing technical and operational expertise on mining, water and land management, and permitting, to support evidence-based policymaking,” they added.
However Claire Baffert, a senior EU policy officer for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), fears that industry voices are disproportionately represented in critical debates around mining.
“Although the Commission promised to review and revise the WFD ‘building on stakeholders’ input’, the engagement with stakeholders has been patchy, untransparent, and unbalanced,” she said.
“Environmental legislation concerns us all, yet the European Commission is risking shutting crucial stakeholders out,” said Shari Hinds, senior policy officer for EU political integrity at Transparency International EU.
“Its recent reliance on closed-door discussions and fast-tracked legislation, neglecting full impact assessments and consultations, is deeply worrying.”
‘Regulatory Erosion’
Outside of meetings, industry groups also joined forces in their public demands to weaken the EU’s water rules.
In March 2025, Euromines and eight other groups representing the mining and quarrying industry focused on the weakening of key components of the WFD, including its non-deterioration principle. This key clause states that, once the quality of a waterway has been established, it must not be allowed to decrease.
In the paper, Euromines argues for a loosening of the directive’s requirement that member states ensure all water bodies achieve good status by 2027.
In October, Euromines followed up by publishing its own “omnibus” proposal calling for changes to water permitting rules, and repeating these key demands.
While the ReSourceEU Action Plan stopped short of mentioning key clauses shared in Euromines’ document on water, it did promise a “simplification” of the WFD, and shared concerns that permitting of mines should be sped up.
The document also accepted the mining industry’s framing that the WFD is a key barrier to the development of projects — something campaigners say the industry has failed to provide clear evidence for.
While environmental groups and several member states expressed their shock and concern about the ReSource EU Action Plan, its release was celebrated by the mining industry, with Euromines claiming it demonstrated “the impact of coordinated industry advocacy”.
A major UN report released this January called for tougher curbs on industries such as mining to protect waterways globally, and sounded the alarm that, without greater protection, much of the world is heading toward a state of “water bankruptcy”. Similarly, last June, the EU highlighted the centrality of strong water legislation to protect against growing threats posed by shortages in its Water Resilience Strategy.
“Mining of ‘critical raw materials’ is framed to be necessary for Europe’s green transition and Europe’s defense needs,” said Sara Johannson, a senior policy officer for water with the European Environmental Bureau. “But allowing those policies to undermine the WFD is not only undermining the success of the Water Resilience Strategy, it’s also politically incoherent.”
Greens MEP Jutta Paulus said she fears that revisions of the file could set a dangerous precedent in agriculture and other polluting industries.
“Reopening the Water Framework Directive at a time of intense lobbying by the mining sector raises serious concerns,” she told DeSmog.
“Once the door is opened, it becomes difficult to contain sector-specific adjustments. The WFD’s strength lies in its integrated, cross-sectoral approach. Fragmenting it risks regulatory erosion beyond the mining sector.”
Editing by Phoebe Cooke
