In this review, we examined the European legislative context on water protection concerning pesticide residues monitoring and the relevant National Action Plans and strategies that were undertaken in European countries to better identify and manage the problem in water bodies. Furthermore, we illustrated the development of analytical methodologies and criticalities connected to determine pesticide residues in water matrices, including sampling, sample preparation approaches, instrumental analyses and specific applications emphasising those works published after 2015. Details about sampling strategies, analytical feasibility, official methods, degradation products and behaviour in the environment for a subset of 160 pesticides are also provided. •Need to monitor the use of pesticides continuously given the wide variety of molecules present in this category•An overview of official methods is provided for a subset of 160 pesticides•Sensitive technologies for micro-extraction include SBSE, SPME Arrows, Hi-SORBTM•New advances in preparation techniques focused on Ice Concentration Linked with Extractive Stirrer (ICECLES) have potentialities for more polar pesticides•Recent developments in pesticides analytical techniques focus on multiresidual LC-MS/MS based methods.