External newsletter - edition 9 - December 2016

Sustainable Development Goals
The European Commission adopted the Sustainable Development Package on the 22 November and presented it to the European Parliament. You can read more here. The ENVI Committee will draft an own-initiative report on the implementation of the SDGs in the EU. A multi-stakeholder conference will be held on the 20 December in Brussels.

Water Framework Directive 
Oliver Loebel and Carla Chiaretti attended the WFD Strategic and Coordination Group meeting at the end of October, where the future of EU water policy was discussed with representatives of the European Commission, Member States and stakeholders.

UWWTD
The European Commission presented the 8th implementation report on the UWWTD before the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament. Compliance is high and improving!   

Pharmaceuticals in the environment
The NGO Health Care without Harm launched a petition to ask for the release of the Strategy on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment that the European Commission had to publish by September 2015. Find more information at: saferpharma.org.

Committee of the Regions
Oliver addressed the ENVI Committee of the Committee of the Regions on 1 December on water management.  


Budapest Water Summit 2016
Bruno Tisserand, President of EurEau, took part in the Budapest Water Summit and intervened in the panel dealing with ‘how to manage every drop possible’, highlighting the important role that water services play in sustainability. Special thanks to our Hungarian member MaViz who were very helpful in organising this!


EEA Report on European water policies and human health
The European Environmental Agency published a new report on European water policies and human health. It examines the so-called ‘Water Industry Directives’ and their influence in the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). EurEau sent comments on the draft during the summer and most of them have been included. It is an interesting document in the context of the revision of the WFD in 2019. 


Fertiliser Regulation
The European Parliament is working on the proposal. We will have more information in January.


Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) 
The revised proposal for the criteria for endocrine disruptors has been discussed in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed in the last meeting on 18 November. The main change is the incorporation of the “may cause adverse effect” in the definition. It is important but there is not so much progress regarding the different classes EurEau is supporting to ensure the precautionary principle is applied. For the moment the European Commission apparently postponed the vote in comitology as MS could have blocked it. The next committee meeting is to be planed late 2016 or early 2017 after inclusion of MS comments (Deadline 30 November 2016). All documents are available here.


Public consultations
The European Commission has launched two consultations.
The first is on policy options to set minimum quality requirements for reused water in the European Union. The deadline for answering this consultation is the 27 January 2017.
The second is for the REACH refit evaluation. The deadline for this consultation is the 28 January 2017.


ECOMONDO
Bruno was at ECOMONDO RIMINI on 8 November. This event was hosted by EurEau member Utilitalia. Bruno spoke on the theme of ‘Water and sanitation recognised as a human right’ where he was able to show that many affordability mechanisms are available to realise this right.


News from members
Dutch members Vewin will have a publication in the coming months. This website www.destaatvanonswater.nl/  (hosted by the Dutch ministry of infrastructure, with contributions of all parties involved in water) will be translated into English. It’s a new way of presenting policy information, through infographics, meant for the general public. Clicking on links in the infographic will bring the reader to level 2 of the information, a bit more complex, but still intended for the general public. The third level of information, is the last level, and that’s the actual, official information on everything going on, meant for the parliament, policy advisors etc.


While in the UK, a new website allows customers to quickly and easily see how their water company is performing and compare it to other companies. www.discoverwater.co.uk has a comprehensive range of data covering water quality, public health, customer service and environmental aspects of water and sewerage services.
The website is the first of its kind in Europe. It was designed to help household customers in England and Wales by bringing together in one place key information about how their water and sewerage services are provided.
Water companies and regulators hope Discover Water will encourage customers to talk to their water companies and influence decisions on how their services are run.



Important dates
You can see a list of events happening around Europe here. The following are a selection. If you have events happening in your country, let us know, especially if you would like to get the EurEau perspective by having us represented at it!

2 December: Bruno Tisserand will speak at ‘Water resources in Italy and Europe’ in Cremona, Italy on the topic of ‘Europe: problems strategies and challenges in the water sector’.

11-12 December: Claudia Castell-Exner will present EN 15 975 -1 and 2 risk management on behalf of EurEau at the European Commission’s Water Safety and Security Workshop.

15-17 May 2017: IWA Performance Indicators conference in Vienna.

6-9 June 2017: ASTEE in Liege, Belgium.

20-22 June 2017: IWA – conference in Trondheim June 2017