Regulation on Water Reuse: Intergroup meeting

The working group on Agriculture and Water Management, of the Intergroup on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, chaired by MEP Michel Dantin organised a meeting on the Regulation on Water Reuse on 8 October from 18.30 to 20.30. Bruno Tisserand, EurEau president, presented the EurEau analysis of the regulation. This well-attended meeting showed the importance of this issue in the context of climate change, particularly highlighted by the recent summer droughts in the EU. You can find the presentations on the event page.

EU news

Drinking Water Directive

The Plenary of the European Parliament gave the mandate to MEP Michel Dantin to negotiate the Drinking Water Directive with the Council of the EU. Read the analysis of the Parliament vote on the ‘EU matters’ blog, and our press release.

Ahead of the vote Vice President Claudia Castell-Exner wrote an article for Euractiv on why MEPs should vote to keep water bills from increasing and we circulated our voting recommendations to MEPs.

Sludge directive: Disclosure of environmental information

The EU has to adapt a number of environmental pieces of legislation to the requirements of the Aarhus Convention and the Inspire directive. The initiative includes the Sewage Sludge Directive.

Single Use Plastics Directive: Parliament approves a position

The European Parliament adopted its report on the SUP Directive including measures regarding wet wipes. They will need to be labelled in a non-misleading way regarding good/bad waste disposal options, the negative environmental impact of inappropriate waste disposal and the presence of plastics in the product. Awareness raising campaigns will have to be implemented to inform consumers about the impact of their products through inappropriate disposal/littering, with a specific focus on the sewer network. National EPR schemes will have to be set up (including waste/litter collection/treatment). However, there is no specific reference to waste water. Council discussions show large support for the directive, but question the cost of EPR schemes and implementation dates. First trilogue meetings could take place in early November with the agreement expected before Christmas.

ECI Directive: Public consultation to be launched

The European Commission will launch a public consultation about the functioning of the European Critical Infrastructure Directive. The related evaluation will assess the scope and content of the directive, as well as how and to what extent the directive has been implemented at both the Member State and European levels.

More details on the evaluation process here.

Regulation on Water Reuse

The rapporteur on the file for the ENVI committee, MEP Simona Bonafè, published her report on water reuse on 25 September. The report is now available in all EU languages. The debate was originally planned in the ENVI committee on 18 October, was finally presented on 25 October in an extraordinary meeting in Strasbourg. The deadline for amendments has been postponed to 5 November. We continue to meet MEPs to explain our position and how to improve the proposal of the European Commission.

CAP: Member States want lower environmental ambitions

Many Member States used the Council meeting of 15 October to criticise the environmental ambitions of the proposed new Common Agricultural Policy. Many ministers called for less conditionality, more voluntary measures (including eco-schemes) and more money.

The European Parliament has appointed its rapporteurs. It is unlikely to favour CAP approval before the elections.

EurEau Vice President Claudia Castell-Exner and Chair of the EurEau Committee on Drinking Water, Arjen Frentz, co-wrote an article for Euractiv on why the next Common Agricultural Policy should do more to protect water resources.

Pesticides regulation: external evaluation

The study supporting the REFIT Evaluation of the Plant Protection Products Regulation ((EC) No 1107/2009) and the Regulation on Pesticides in or on Food and Feed ((EC) No 396/2005) was finalised by ECORYS and published on 18 October 2018 on the European Commission’s website. You can find online all the relevant materials: 

Executive Summary
Study supporting the REFIT Evaluation 
Annex I: synopsis report
Annex II: methodology and cost calculations
Annex III: consultation activities – surveys and interviews.
 

Pesticides Regulation: Commission bans three substances

According to the Commission's decision, three products – diquat (herbicide), thiram  (fungicide) and pymetrozine – will be withdrawn from the market over the next months. The use of another pesticide, malathion, was restricted to greenhouses.

Member States had failed to agree on a common position.

Chemicals and circular economy: EurEau response to the public consultation

The Commission finalised the public consultation on the interface between chemical, products and waste legislation in the framework of the circular economy. It looks at hazardous chemicals in recycled materials and end-of-waste criteria.

EurEau’s response is available here.

Commission roadmaps on environmental policy

The Commission published a Roadmap announcing a second edition of the Environmental Implementation Review (EIR2019). No stakeholder involvement is foreseen. The first edition identified waste water treatment as one of the areas of incomplete implementation. The second Roadmap announces a consultation process regarding the qualitative and quantitative impact of the EU farm policy on water resources.  

WATenERgy Cycle

Caroline Greene from the EurEau Secretariat attended the 4th project and steering committee meeting in Kozani, Greece, on 4 - 5 October.

Communications news

Dutch answers to PiE

Vewin’s answers to questions from a Dutch MEP on their strategy on pharmaceutical residues in the environment can be found here.

Other speaking opportunities

Klara Ramm took part in the debate organised by Wareg during the H2O Accadueo conference in Bologna. 

On 23 October, Bertrand Vallet from the EurEau secretariat was a member of the panel at the ENERWATER EU project final conference. He presented the views of the water services on the assessment of the energy efficiency of waste water treatment plants. He explained that operators are doing a lot in terms of energy efficiency but remind participants of the importance of plant compliance in parallel of their energy efficiency improvement. However, the methodology, the tool developed and the fact that it is accessible on-line creates a reliable and good tool for operators to communicate on what they are doing in term of energy efficiency.

More information here.

Silver in Sweden, Gold for Anders

Anders Finnson, Chair of the Joint Working Group on the Water Framework Directive, stars in an online video campaign informing people how they should wash their silver-containing sports clothes (and dispose of the washing water after) to protect the environment. Or just make sure your sports gear doesn't contain silver! The video is here.

Commission project – STOP-IT

The EU-funded STOP-IT innovation project aims to provide solutions against physical and cyber threats to the European water infrastructure. 

The solutions foreseen in the STOP-IT project include preventative measures systems, risk analysis tools, stress testing platforms, network analyzers, computer vision tools, remote lock controls, anomaly detectors, public warning systems in case of accidents and more. Several of these solutions are currently being tested by leading water utility companies in Norway, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Israel.

A workshop will take place in Barcelona on 14 November. Registration for the workshop can be completed by clicking this link. The invitation code ‘4C052F9F’.

Member States to benefit from a quarter of a billion euros of investments in environment, nature and climate action

The European Commission has approved an investment package of € 243 million from the EU budget for projects supporting nature, the environment and quality of life in Europe's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future. EU funding under the LIFE programme for the Environment and Climate Action will mobilise additional investments leading to a total of € 430.7 million going towards 142 new projects. With numerous trans-national projects funded, LIFE will have an impact in every EU Member State. More…

Events

7 November - Young Water Leaders first global event; Berlin, Germany. 

08-09 November – European Nutrient Vent @ECOMONDO 2018; Rimini, Italy. Katerina Christodoulou will present a European example of water reuse and nutrient recovery in the circular economy in Mediterranean countries.

14 November - Stakeholder workshop: Update on TOPPS water protection projects to reduce plant protection product losses to water; Brussels, Belgium. Register here.

19 November – ‘The drivers of development’; Turin, Italy. Organised by the Turin Water Utility SMAT. Carla Chiaretti from the secretariat will present.

22 November - Bertrand will present EurEau’s position on the Regulation on Water Reuse at ESAMUR in Murcia, Spain.

5-6 December 2018 - Making Europe a safer place: demonstrating the impact of EU-funded security research; Brussels, Belgium.

28-31 May 2019 - 4th European Climate Change Adaptation Conference: working together to prepare for future; Lisbon, Portugal.

You can keep up with all the EurEau news via our website, our EU Matters blog and on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter feeds. For more events, visit our calendar.

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