Friends of Europe is organising its annual European Policy Summit on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 as part of the official programme of the European Commission’s 2012 Green Week, entitled “Water security: Policies for better access” and is in partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

This summit will focus on how to tackle Africa’s water scarcities and how to improve Asia’s water governance. The debate will be over ways African governments should address water scarcities and what the private sector can do to boost infrastructural investment. It will examine what governments in Asia are doing in terms of water diplomacy to increase the diversity of water supplies for agriculture and energy, asking whether the political will is there to step up financial and technical assistance to deal with water-based problems and what the international community and the EU are doing to tackle Africa’s and Asia’s water challenges?