The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) has adopted its position on a new law amending environmental quality standards (EQS) for surface water and groundwater, with amendments that strengthen the polluter-pays and control-at-source principles through an explicit hierarchy of measures. MEPs also chose to increase transparency for water services and citizens by making pollutant inventories public for each river basin. EurEau reiterates its support for these measures, including the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to cover the costs of monitoring under the Groundwater Directive (GWD) and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (EQSD).

We view with more caution the insertion of a general rule for groundwater EQS to be 10 times lower than their surface water equivalent, however. While we support the intention of ensuring the best possible protection for groundwater quality, this blanket rule could have unintended negative consequences for practices such as managed aquifer recharge or irrigation using reclaimed wastewater, which are necessary to combat water scarcity and adapt to the effects of climate change. On this point, EurEau continues to support the Commission proposal.