Sweden's former EU minister has been EU Commissioner for Environment and Water Resilience since autumn 2024. Rarely has this area been as relevant as after a summer like this one - with heat waves, forest fires and droughts across Europe.
This summer has shown again that climate change is here, it will have major consequences. It will only get worse, Roswall warns at a press conference with Swedish and Nordic EU correspondents in Brussels.
Thousands of Europeans are estimated to have died prematurely due to the heat. The economic consequences are enormous. Nuclear power plants have been shut down due to a lack of cooling water and transport has come to a standstill as rivers have dried up.
Heavy part in speech?
The water issue has become central.
"All the growth that Germany could have had this year has been eaten up by the events of this summer. It is not only necessary to adapt, but we also have to take action, because we do not have as much water as we thought," says Roswall.
Environmental and water issues are expected to play a major role when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers her annual State of the Union speech on Wednesday. At a recent preparatory meeting, there were two special guests: one spoke about AI issues, the other was Swedish climate scientist Johan Rockström.
At the same time, there are big question marks about how much von der Leyen wants and dares to do in a situation when several heavy EU countries and large parts of the EU Parliament instead want to ease various environmental requirements in order to boost traditional industry and push down fuel and energy prices.
“Wake up”
According to the news site Euractiv, von der Leyen is expected to promise, among other things, a new "water law" - although details are lacking about what it will contain.
Roswall does not want to say anything in advance, but notes that a lack of water - both in terms of quantity and quality - is something that threatens all of Europe.
"We have a Baltic Sea that is dying. We have really taken water for granted. But that time is over even for us in the Nordic countries," says the EU Commissioner, also pointing to the global consequences.
"If there is a lack of water around the Middle East, it drives conflict and it drives migration and migration is a sensitive issue in Europe. Again: these are things that are connected. The sad truth is that it will only get worse, so we need to wake up," says Jessika Roswall.
The President of the European Commission delivers an annual "State of the Union" speech to present the issues that will be prioritised in the coming year. The speech has become increasingly important as an indication of what is most important to the Commission and what proposals will be put forward.
The speech is delivered on a Wednesday morning in September each year (except in years with EU elections) before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The first was given by then Commission President José Manuel Barroso in 2010. This year's speech, on 16 September, is the sixth given by current President Ursula von der Leyen.
