Parliament’s decision reinforces the urgent need for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to fund advanced wastewater treatment.
On 26 March, the European Parliament endorsed the updated environmental quality standards (EQS) for surface water under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). With this decision, MEPs increase the pressure on Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants to install quaternary treatment in many areas, as the strict EQS for pharmaceutical substances in surface water cannot be achieved otherwise.
Parliament’s decision comes when MEPs are debating whether to “stop the clock” on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme designed to fund quaternary treatment obligations under the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (rUWWTD).
“EurEau supports the stricter EQS as approved by Parliament. But meeting these standards must go hand in hand with the polluter pays principle,” said Oliver Loebel, EurEau Secretary General. “Without Extended Producer Responsibility, households, farmers and small business that are already struggling, will end up paying to remove micropollutants from wastewater created by others.”
Pausing the rUWWTD – and EPR – doesn’t remove Member States obligation to comply with the WFD. In effect, national authorities and municipalities would still have to upgrade wastewater treatment plants to meet the new EQS. Without EPR, these investments will have to be funded by tax payers and water users instead of the funding mechanism (EPR) established to avoid this.
We urge policymakers to maintain EPR in order to ensure policy coherence and uphold the polluter-pays principle in European water policy.