Water stress is a growing concern in Europe, partly due to the changing climate context. Despite the cross-cutting impacts that water availability has on different areas under the competence of the European Union (EU), there is not currently a comprehensive and systematic legal framework addressing this issue. The purpose of this article is therefore to examine the EU legislation that concerns the measures aimed at mitigating these risks. To this purpose, it is first examined how droughts and water scarcity are framed within EU legal acts. Based on such an overview, the analysis is directed to the mechanisms developed at the EU level for monitoring, identifying and forecasting water stress risks, as well as the legal provisions relating to the planning tools. The remainder of the article is devoted to the regulation of preventative measures for water scarcity and drought risk reduction, following the water hierarchy resulting from COM(2007) 414.

水资源压力在欧洲日益受到关注，部分原因是气候环境的变化。尽管水资源供应对欧盟（EU）管辖范围内的不同领域产生了跨领域影响，但目前还没有一个全面、系统的法律框架来解决这个问题。因此，本文的目的是研究涉及旨在减轻这些风险的措施的欧盟立法。为此，首先研究了欧盟法律如何规定干旱和水资源短缺问题。基于这样的概述，分析针对欧盟层面制定的用于监测、识别和预测水资源压力风险的机制，以及与规划工具相关的法律规定。本文的其余部分将按照 COM(2007) 414 产生的水等级制度致力于对水资源短缺和减少干旱风险的预防措施进行监管。