EurEau newsletter - edition 3 - Avril 2016

New Secretary General in EurEau!
We are very pleased to announce that Oliver Loebel will join us as our new Secretary General. Olivier has extensive experience in managing an association. He will begin with us on 1 October. Neil Dhot will continue as Interim Secretary General until the end of May.


EurEau Annual Review 2015
We are very pleased to present the first EurEau Annual Review. It gives our members an overview of our main activities in 2015, the groups we participated in and plans for 2016. You can read ithere.


Water and pharmaceuticals
Anders Finnson spoke at the ‘Water and Pharmaceuticals – insights and perspectives for health and environment’ conference on 12-13 April in Uppsala, Sweden. The presentations are here.

The organisation Health Care Without Harm will organise a workshop on the PiE Strategy on 14 July 2016. You will receive more information closer to the date of the event.


Drinking Water Directive 
We are organising the second symposium on materials and products in contact with drinking water on 12 May. The programme is available here.  
                                                                                             

The human right to water and sanitation 
EurEau President Bruno Tisserand will be part of a panel on the human right to water and sanitation in the framework of an event organised by environmental NGOs on 2 May 2016 in the European Parliament. The implementation of the Water SDG at the European Level will be the focus of the event. 


Circular Economy (CE)
After the environment Council meeting of 4 March, the Council conclusions are under preparation and to be adopted on June 20. EurEau continues to work on this file.

The discussion in the Envi committee of the European Parliament on the Waste package has been postponed to 15 June 2016 with an amendment deadline on 23 June 2016 and adoption on 7 November 2016. The article related to the exclusion of sewage sludge from the scope of municipal waste is important for the water industry as it allows sewage sludge not to be affected by the targets on landfilling and incineration.


Micropollutants
The European Commission adopted a regulation on mercury to implement the provisions of the Minamata Convention in the EU law. The regulation in art.10 introduces some obligation to only limit the release of dental amalgam’s mercury in the environment. Now the European Parliament and the Council are working on the text. Read more on the ‘EU matters’ blog here.   

The European Parliament plenary adopted by 374 to 225 with 102 abstentions a resolution on the draft implementing regulation from the European Commission renewing the approval of glyphosate. The Commission had proposed a draft implementing regulation that according to the European Parliament fails “to ensure a high level of protection of both human and animal health and the environment, fails to apply the precautionary principle, and exceeds the implementing powers provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009” since it allowed for 15 years authorisation renewal. MEPs called on the Commission to submit a new draft implementing regulation in order to better address the sustainable use of herbicides containing glyphosate. Read more on the EU matters blog. The ball is on the court of Member States now: the comitology committee should meet and decide by 18-19 May. 


Regulatory fitness of chemicals – public consultation
The European Commission published a public consultation on the regulatory fitness of chemicals legislation (excluding REACH). The deadline is 27 May and you can answer here. 

On the 19 April, Carla from the Secretariat took part in the workshop co-organised by DG GROW and their consultants RPA that introduced the fitness check to stakeholders. To see the presentation by RPA click here.  

The background document is available here.  


Ad-hoc Task Force Group on Water Reuse 
The final draft of the guidance will be submitted to the Strategic Coordination Group of the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive on 2-3 May 2016. If validated by the SCG, the document will go for comment and validation by the Water Directors meeting in Amsterdam on 9-10 June 2016.

In the meantime, the JRC proposed a draft of their report on establishing standards for reclaimed water for irrigation in agriculture and in groundwater recharge. This report is currently under evaluation by the JWG on Water Reuse and comments should be sent before the end of April.


Investment in the water sector
The European Parliament’s Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development intergroup, chaired by Michel Dantin MEP, held a conference on investments in the water sector together with the intergroup on sustainable long term investments today in Brussels. Carla will have a synopsis and the presentations on her blog very soon.

News from our members
The Netherlands (Vewin) reacted to the European Parliament’s resolution on glyphosate.

Important dates
10 May: Neil Dhot, EurEau Interim Secretary General will speak about EurEau at the Svensk Vatten conference. Anders Finnson will talk too. More: www.gothiatowers.com.
10 May: EurEau President Bruno Tisserand will speak at ‘Water reuse in the framework of the circular economy’ in Madrid.
12 May: Materials in contact with drinking water conference in Brussels.
19 May: Roberto Zocchi will represent EurEau in a panel discussion of the Water Joint Programming Initiative in Rome as part of the Stakeholder Advisory Group.
26 May: Arjen Frentz will speak on behalf of EurEau at the INSPIRE Congress in Rotterdam.
26-27 May: Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive expert group meeting in Brussels.
30 May–3 June: EU Green Week – Investing for a greener future.
7-9 June: Anders Finnson will give a key-note speech at the IWA specialist conference Holistic Sludge Management in Malmö, Sweden. See this link for registration