EU news
Drinking Water Directive
The European Parliament, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission held a further trilogue meeting on 19 November to negotiate on the Drinking Water Directive. The next trilogue is scheduled for 4 December and it may not be the final one, given the fact that many elements are still open and Parliament and Council have different views.
Should the Finnish Presidency not manage to reach an agreement by 20 December, the Croatian Presidency (January-June 2020) is ready to advance negotiations.

Water Reuse
The European Parliament, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission held the second trilogue meeting on 12 November to negotiate on the Water Reuse Regulation. The next meeting is scheduled for 2 December and the Finnish presidency is still aiming close the file by the end of the year.

CAP: EurEau meets Parliament rapporteurs
On 5 November, Dieter Staat (Unie van waterschappen/Vewin, The Netherlands) and Oliver Loebel from EurEau met with the rapporteurs of the Parliament’s AGRI and ENVI committees to discuss the legislative process of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The two MEPs, Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany) and Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg), stressed that they wanted to negotiate joint amendments for environment-related articles. The plenary vote could be envisaged for April or May 2020.

Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: European Parliament motion for resolution
The European Parliament is drafting a motion for resolution to respond to the PiE strategy that the European Commission adopted in March 2019. The ENVI Committee will discuss it during its meeting of the 2-3 December. MEPs can table amendments by 29 January 2020.

Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: New OCED report
The OECD published its report on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. The report recommends that governments take a collective life cycle approach to PiE. Many of the OECD’s findings are in line with our views, i.e. that we need a variety of measures to prevent PiE that include source-directed and use-orientated approaches that engage all stakeholders.

Our reaction is here and the OECD report can be read online or downloaded (for a fee) here.

Circular economy ‘number one priority’ in EU’s new Green Deal
According to Commission sources, the circular economy, including new waste and recycling laws, will contribute about half of the EU’s efforts to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, in line with the commitments of their incoming Commission president von der Leyen. The forthcoming circular economy action plan 2.0 will aim for a real transformation of our economies.

Which way?
The Swedish municipality of Åre (in the mid-West of the country) did not get the environmental permit they applied for to build a new WWTP due to the Water Framework Directive, the Weser-ruling and the non-deterioration principle.
The municipality planned to build a new WWTP at the Bydalen ski resort in order to improve and protect the local lake’s water by replacing the present waste water treatment facilities. They applied for a plant that should perform far better than the requirements in the current Urban Waste Water Directive. Today the resort can host 2 600 persons and was planned to host 6 000 persons within the years to come. Two years ago the authority permitted the plant but limited its size to 3 000 persons.

EIB ends funding of fossil fuels
In a ground-breaking decision, Member States and the Commission decided to make the European Investment Bank (EIB) the world’s first public bank to commit to ending funding of coal, oil and gas. The new rules will come into force in 2021.

IB2018 Benchmarking Workshop: a retrospect
From 13 – 15 November 2019, participants in the IB2018 benchmarking exercise for Western Europe gathered in Helsinki, Finland for the 13th edition of the annual benchmarking workshop. You can read more here.

All Policies for a Healthy Europe Platform
EurEau joined the AP4HE Platform as knowledge partner. The platform, sponsored by J&J and Microsoft, was launched one year ago and promotes the economy of well-being, focusing on the links between healthy societies, a healthy environment, and health systems. If you wish to know more follow the platform on twitter @wellbeingEU or have a look at the manifesto here.

Communications news
Like travelling, love local tap water!
Svenskt Vatten is working with closely with the Nordic Council to encourage tourists to drink local tap water.
The partners are based in Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Åland.

Iceland
https://youtu.be/wYd_51uwlC4
https://youtu.be/Miuj2V2fkDw
https://youtu.be/S2GZZ6rqEJ8

Sweden
https://svensktvatten.screen9.tv/media/57ctEXJJ8QsHIjStn4PztA/kranmarkt-swedish-tapwater-visit-sweden

Finland
Here is the link.

News from members
Luigi Joseph Del Giacco replaces Giordano Colarullo as the Italian representative on the EurEau General Assembly. Welcome Luigi, and thank you to Giordano for his contribution.

The Dutch drinking water association Vewin commissioned a study from the KWR Watercycle Research Institute on the quality of the drinking water sources in the Netherlands. You can read it here.

The secretariat hosted the Belgaqua members from the French-speaking part of Belgium, Aquawal in early November. Four members of the team came to Brussels to share experiences and learn about each others work.

The secretariat has been hosting our Swedish colleague Anders Finnson on secondment from Svenskt Vatten for the month. We will say goodbye to him on December 3, when he will travel to Vienna for the Biocides Europe conference.

And still in Sweden, Svenskt Vatten will host a competition to find their best tap water. Ten regional finals will take place in October 2020, with the two ‘best’ municipalities competing in Stockholm in November. Keep your eyes here for more news!

Out and about
Maria João Benoliel (EPAL, PT, EU1) represented EurEau at the CEDR (road authorities) research conference "Water Quality" in Lisbon on 8-9 October 2019.

EurEau Secretary General, Oliver Loebel met with our Roaminan member, the Romanian Water Association ARA, before our Annual Congress in Bucharest in October.

Claudia Castel-Exner, EurEau President, gave the keynote speech at the leaders forum of Amsterdam Water Week on 4 November. In the afternoon, Claudia participated in a panel discussion.

Bertrand Vallet from the EurEau Secretariat was at the Journée d’étude for CEBEDEAU on 7 November.

Carla Chiaretti from the EurEau secretariat represented us at the 12 November HealthCare Without Harm Europe workshop on “A multi-stakeholder approach to pharmaceuticals in the environment".

Claudia presented at the DANVA Annual Conference in Aarhus on 12 November, speaking on the challenges and possibilities for the European water sector as we see them.

Oliver Loebel was in Berlin, Germany, attending and informing participants on Wasserwirtschaft in Zeiten des Klimawandels – Ein Blick von außen auf die Branche (13 November). He also met with BDEW colleagues while in Germany.

Carla stayed local to speak at the European Parliament in Brussels on water management as part of the Key environmental challenges and the role of the SDGs on 19 November.

Oliver spoke at the 5th session of the Meeting of the UNECE/WHO Parties to the Protocol on Water and Health in Belgrade, Serbia on 19-21 November. Oliver was a “responding expert” in the high-level session, talking about pollutants and polluter-pays in the context of providing accessible and affordable water services. While in Serbia, Oliver met with CCIS, our Serbian member.

Claudia was in Lisbon, Portugal to represent EurEau at the ENEG biannual conference, organised by APDA on 19-22 November.

Lucia Pitzurra represented EurEau in a stakeholder event on the 20 November 2019 in Rome to present the utilities in the discussion for the development of the new pan-European research infrastructure DANUBIUS-RI.

Events
3 December 2019 – Rome, Italy. WAREG 1st European Regulators Forum. Several EurEau members will be present, including President Claudia Castel-Exner, Sarah Gillman and Carl-Emil Larsen.

5 December 2019 – Rome, Italy. Union for the Mediterranean Annual Conference on Water Investment and Financing. Oliver Loebel will participate in the round-table discussion on private financing.

6 December 2019 - Conference on Member States’ investment needs and financing options for the water sectors; Brussels, Belgium. The OECD and the European Commission conference supports strategic thinking at EU and Member State level about the financing of the water sector in the years to come.

12 December 2019 – EIP EU Water Innovation Conference 2019 in Zaragoza, Spain. F. Javier Fernández Delgado, a Spanish member of the Joint Working Group on Innovation will present on behalf of EurEau.

13 December 2019 – WHO European Commission Workshop: Reducing water pollution from pharmaceuticals in Zaragoza, Spain. Oliver Loebel will participate in one of the panel discussions.

13 – 14 February 2020 - Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium. AQUAWAL and her partners will be at the ‘water Village’ as part of the Municipalia Salon. AQUAWAL, la CILE, in BW, INASEP, SWDE, SPGE and VIVAQUA invite EurEau members to visit!
You can get more information from Fanny Merenne, (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and at http://www.municipalia.be/.

9-10 March 2020 - Urban Resilience in a context of Climate Change (URCC) Conference, organised in the framework of the RESCCUE project, will take place in Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, in Barcelona Spain. You can find all the information here.

1-3 April 2020 – Lisbon, Portugal. Urban Future Global Conference. One of the themes is water. If you would like to speak at the event, contact the organisers and propose a topic. More…

15-16 June 2020 - European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference, 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.