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The simplification of environmental assessments needs to strike the right balance to avoid creating loopholes for sectors with significant environmental footprints.

FIEC and EurEau encourage the EU to maintain EPR in the recast UWWTD

Call to swiftly implement the recast UWWTD to protect public health, the environment and Europe’s competitiveness

The Commission proposal for the ‘Simplification and strengthening of food and feed safety requirements’ modifies the conditions for placing pesticides and biocides on the market It contains welcome measures to accelerate access to the market for new biocontrol substances and products.
However, several proposals will negatively affect compliance with article 7.3 of the Water Framework Directive and the requirements of the Drinking Water Directive, such as unlimited approval period of most active substances. Furthermore, it must be possible to ban pesticide uses easily and promptly as soon as monitoring data show that the environmental quality objectives of the Water Framework Directive are at risk from these substances. We call on the co-legislators to ensure the full protection of drinking water resources and avoid legal uncertainty between Regulation 1107/2009 and the DWD.

Protecting our drinking water resources in a changing geopolitical climate

The INSPIRE Directive must be consistent with EU legislation aimed at protecting critical entities and vital societal services. The protection of public health and the environment must prevail over the right to access certain spatial data. Member States should be required to ensure that spatial data of infrastructure managed by the sectors listed in the annex to Directive 2022/2557 should not be made publically accessible, unless it are not security-relevant.

The limitation only applies to spatial data and not to environmental data.

Drinking water and wastewater services are essential to the functioning of Europe’s societies and its internal market. As the European Union prepares the next Multiannual Financial Framework, funding for cohesion, prosperity and security represents a key opportunity to strengthen the resilience, sustainability and climate neutrality of the water services sector, in line with the objectives of the European Water Resilience Strategy.

EurEau welcomes the Commission’s proposal for the National and Regional Partnership (NRP) Regulation and sets out targeted recommendations to ensure that water services infrastructure is adequately supported in the next seven-year financing cycle. These recommendations focus on securing explicit eligibility for water services infrastructure, mainstreaming funding across climate, environmental and security objectives, strengthening governance through the involvement of water service providers, and improving the sector’s capacity to absorb available funding.

Water services, including drinking water and wastewater, are essential to human rights, public health, environmental protection, and Europe’s climate resilience, competitiveness, and security. Europe’s overall security depends on water security, which in turn relies on resilient water services. Such resilience cannot be achieved without access to reliable, secure, and affordable energy. As energy security has become an increasing concern for the European water sector, this paper examines the key challenges and opportunities involved. It explores how water services can contribute to a more resilient European energy system and assesses innovative economic and financial instruments needed to meet investment requirements and strengthen long-term energy security.

We strongly believe that the rUWWTD is a crucial tool for improving Europe’s water quality, protecting aquatic biodiversity and public health. Its EPR scheme is a proportionate instrument to encourage sustainable market practices and pollution reduction whilst spreading the cost of pollution equitably and protecting the European food value chain.