Water and agriculture
Proposal for a Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products
The European Commission adopted a legislative proposal on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products.
The proposal is a very positive step towards the implementation of the ambition of the Farm2Fork Strategy of the Green Deal, since it contains binding targets for the reduction and the use of pesticides. Water bodies used for the abstraction of drinking water fall under the definition of “sensitive areas” where the use of all pesticides is banned. You can read our press release here.
You can find the Regulation here and the Annexes here.
Carsten Schmidt will represent us at the Intergroup meeting on pesticides organised by MEP Tolleret and MEP Bijoux on 13 July. You can register here.
The Regulation will introduce EU wide targets to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030, in line with the EU’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies.
SAIO Regulation: Mixed results as Trilogue ends
The European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement in the Trilogue negotiations on the Statistics for Agricultural Input and Output (SAIO) Regulation. Parliament obtained a number of import concessions from Member States.
Under the provisional agreement, Member States will have to collect harmonised data on the use of pesticides, organic farming and fertilisers, and on the use of antimicrobials. Furthermore, data on pesticides will include active substances placed on the market and used in agricultural activities by crop and area treated. It was also agreed that data must be disseminated annually. It is however disappointing that the first set of data will only be collected in 2026 and disseminated in 2028, with annual data collection starting in 2028 (dissemination in 2030).
The agreed SAIO Regulation is however unlikely to provide the data needed for risk management under the Drinking Water Directive. More…
The SAIO initiative updates the rules on compiling statistics for EU farming, including the organic sector.
EurEau joins EU Advisory Group on Sustainability of Food Systems
EurEau’s Oliver Loebel was selected to sit on this advisory group set up by DG SANTE of the European Commission in order to accompany the Commission’s work on legislative measures to make Europe’s food systems more sustainable.
Water and the environment
IED: EurEau position in the pipeline
The European Commission published the draft revised Industrial Emissions Directive in April. We see a lot of proposed improvements to control industrial emissions to water sources as well as better access for water operators to information. However, we also see some key issues that could pose a threat for protecting these same water sources. We are developing a position paper to clarify our concerns for policy makers.
In the parliament, things are progressing, with the nomination of Radan Kanev (EPP) as rapporteur in the ENVI (lead) committee.
Bertrand Vallet (EurEau) attended an event organised by the Dutch Permanent Representation where rapporteur Kanev expressed his will to work towards achieving both climate neutrality and zero pollution, even if these two objectives are contradictory according to him. However, the IED is the right place to discuss this and even if it seems difficult to reach both objectives, the rapporteur believes it has to be the goal.
The IED aims to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment taken as a whole by reducing harmful industrial emissions across the EU, in particular through better application of Best Available Techniques (BAT).
Regulation: Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals
The SSbD is a Regulation that is part of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and is voluntary.
We participated in the 15 June workshop ‘Towards a chemical policy framework that fosters sustainable and innovative solutions’ focused on SSbD and the challenges this poses to innovation. The European Commission’ present the development of SSbD framework and criteria (proposal expected by Q4). The first step of the assessment will be a hazard assessment because this is critical to allow circularity and the recycling of materials.
Energy files: Parliament votes the ETS
The European Parliament voted in plenary the inclusion of municipal waste incineration by 1 January 2026, after an impact assessment. The ETS (Emission Trading System) would include municipal waste incineration installations. We are working with MEPS to ensure that whenever sewage sludge is managed together with municipal waste, the sludge will not be covered by the ETS.
Sewage sludge is not considered municipal waste by the Waste Framework Directive and sewage sludge mono-incineration is therefore not included in the ETS.
The EU ETS is a cornerstone of the EU's policy to combat climate change and its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively.
Taxonomy: reports and actions
The Taxonomy report by the Sustainable Finance Platform on the ‘Enabling activities’ (like desalination) and relative TSCs that was due to be published in May is now expected to be published between July and September.
Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS): water sector demands investment security for UV lamps for disinfection
EurEau submitted feedback to the RoHS revision consultation. We requested the exclusion from the scope of the Directive for our applications of mercury-containing UV lamps for disinfection and treatment of drinking water and waste water. Supporting this request, we submitted a technical document assessing that UV lamps are part of water treatment works or waste water treatment plants, and must be classified as ‘large scale fixed installations’, which is one of the requirements for the exclusion.
The RoHS Directive aims to prevent the risks posed to human health and the environment related to the management of electronic and electrical waste. It does this by restricting the use of certain hazardous substances in EEE that can be substituted by safer alternatives. We support the Directive as it provides protection for water resources.
