EurEau newsletter - edition 40 - October 2019
EurEau News
EurEau Congress 2019 – Bucharest
The EurEau Congress 2019 was held in Bucharest last week, hosted by Apa Nova Bucharest, with committee, JWG and the General Assembly meetings.
The EurEau Plenary conference on The Challenges for Sustainable Water Management and with invaluable interventions from Veronica Manfredi from the European Commission and Xavier Leflaive of the OECD continued to the debates we are having in EurEau and elsewhere. We also heard from Romanian Secretary of State Adriana Petco on her views of the water sector.
Prior to the congress, EurEau President Dr Claudia Castell-Exner gave to the Romanian Business Review on the challenges facing the sector.
EU news
Drinking Water Directive
The European Parliament, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission held trilogue meetings on 7 and 22 October to negotiate on the Drinking Water Directive. Two more trilogues are scheduled and an early second reading agreement before the end of December should be possible. The Commission will present the results of a mini-impact assessment on art.10a on the materials in contact with drinking water and they are working with the co-legislator to fine-tune some details to finally establish hygienic requirements at EU level.
The Finnish Presidency has repeatedly stressed its ambition to reach an early second-reading agreement by the end of the year.
Water Reuse
The European Parliament, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission held the first trilogue meeting on 10 October to negotiate on the Water Reuse Regulation. Two more trilogues are scheduled and an early second reading agreement before the end of December should be possible.
Single Use Plastics Directive: Commission prepares guidance documents
The European Commission is preparing two guidance papers covering the products included the Single Use Plastics Directive (including the definition of plastics) and the cost of waste management due to littering of SUP.
In addition, a legally binding implemention act to establish harmonised specifications for marking (labelling) is in preparation. EurEau responded to the consultation and participates in all related stakeholder meetings with a view to better protecting our sewer networks from wet wipes.
CAP: Parliament seeks way forward
The proposal for the Common Agricultural Policy after 2020 is still blocked in both Council and Parliament. In particular, the level of environmental protection required from farmers divides law makers.
The rapporteurs of the Parliament’s AGRI and ENVI committees are likely to negotiate common amendment to be put for vote to the plenary session. A comparison of both positions is available .
News from members
Iacovos Papaiacovou, our General Assembly representative from Cyprus, will retire from the end of this year. He will be replaced on the EurEau General Assembly by Sophocles Christodoulides. We thank Iacovos for his valued contribution too EurEau and the European water sector over the last many years, and we wish him all the best for his retirement. And welcome to Sophocles!
Staying in the General Assembly, we said goodbye to Neil Kerr, who will move to Brussels as the head of Helena Dalli‘s cabinet, who will hold the equality portfolio in the next Commission. He is replaced on the EurEau GA by Julia Scicluna.
Claudia Castell-Exner is now replaced on the GA by Gunda Röstel, representing Germany.
Our Swedish member SvensktVatten held their national Drinking Water Conference in Skelleftea. Carla from the Secretariat spoke on the work of EurEau on the DWD revision.
And while Carla was in Sweden, Sweden was in Brussels! A delegation of Svenskt Vatten’s members’ communications managers visited Brussels to learn more about the EU, EurEau and how both of these work (and work together).
Next week, the secretariat will welcome some of our Belgian members-members, from Aquawal, the Walonian water association.
From November 4, Anders Finnson from Svenskt Vatten will join the secretariat in Brussels for a one-month secondment. If you would like to participate in a secondment in the EurEau office to learn more about how we work, how our organisations can work better together and to see how the EU works in practice, contact Oliver.
EurEau will have a change in membership from the end of the year, with the Bulgarian Water Association leaving. In her stead, the union of Water Supply and Sanitation Operators in the Republic of Bulgaria (UWWSORB), will join EurEau.
Out and about
EurEau Secretary General Oliver Loebel spoke at in Wroclaw, Poland on 3-4 October.
Jean-Pierre Silan from Belgaqua represented EurEau at the , European Conference on Sludge Management, Liège, Belgium, on 6-8 October, where he spoke about ‘A holistic approach to face challenges of waste water operators for sewage sludge management in Europe’.
In Portugal, Maria João Benoliel (APDA) was at the CEDR Call 2016 for the Transnational Research Programme – Part Water Quality, in Lisbon (8-9 October) on our behalf.
At the same time, Greet de Gueldre from Belgaqua represented EurEau at the , Liège, Belgium (9 October).
Events
4 November 2019 – Claudia Castel-Exner, EurEau President, will give the keynote speech at the leaders forum of . In the afternoon, Claudia will participate in a panel discussion.
7 November 2019 – Journée d’étude for CEBEDEAU. Bertrand will be present.
11 November 2019 - European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) organises its 3rd in Brussels.
12 November 2019 – HealthCare Without Harm Europe organises a workshop on “A multi-stakeholder approach to pharmaceuticals in the environment". Anders Finnson and Carla Chiaretti will intervene of behalf of EurEau.
12-13 November 2019 – DANVA Annual Conference in Aarhus. EurEau President Claudia Castell-Exner will speak on EurEau and the challenges and possibilities as we see them.
13 November 2019 – Berlin, Germany. Oliver will speak at Wasserwirtschaft in Zeiten des Klimawandels – Ein Blick von außen auf die Branche.
19 November 2019 – Key environmental challenges and the role of the SDGs – European Parliament, Brussels. Carla Chiaretti will speak on water management.
19-21 November 2019 – Belgrade, Serbia. Oliver Loebel will attend the UNECE/WHO meeting of the Partiers to the Protocol on Water and Health.
19-22 November 2019 – Lisbon, Portugal. Dr Castell-Exner will speak on the Perspectives of Water Management in the European Area at the ENEG biannual conference, organised by APDA. This years theme is Water in Portugal in the Next Decade | 2030 Roadmap.
28 November 2019 - ; Barcelona, Spain.
3 December 2019 – Rome, Italy. WAREG 1st European Regulators Forum. Several EurEau members will be present, including President Claudia Castel-Exner, Mariano Blanco, Sarah Gillman and Carl-Emil Larsen.
12 December 2019 - in Zaragoza, Spain. Alexander Keucken, chair of the Joint Working Group on Innovation will represent EurEau.
1-3 April 2020 – Lisbon, Portugal. Urban Future Global Conference.
15-16 June 2020 - , Vienna, Austria. The call for abstracts for presentations for the six parallel sessions is open. More…
3 July 2020 – Lisbon, Portugal. OSPAR Ministerial Meeting.
25-28 May 2021 – CEOCOR; hosted by ÖVGW in Vienna, Austria.
- Created on .