Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Recital 1 a (new): (1a) Water is a public good which belongs to everyone and is for everyone and which, as a natural resource that is essential, irreplaceable and indispensable to life, needs to be considered and integrated in its three dimensions: social, economic and environmental.

Recital 1 b (new): (1b) The European Parliament resolutions of 5 October 2022 on access to water as a human right – the external dimension, and of 8 September 2015 on the follow-up to the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Right2Water’ state that water should be treated as a common good.

Recital 2: (2) Directive 91/271/EEC sets the legal framework for the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater and the discharge of biodegradable wastewaters from certain industrial sectors. The objective of this framework is to protect the environment, including the biodiversity of land-based, marine and coastal ecosystems from being adversely affected by insufficiently treated urban wastewater discharges in order to achieve the objectives established under Directive 2000/60/EC and other relevant legislation. This Directive should, in view of the green transition objectives set by the Green Deal, continue to pursue the same objective, whilst also contributing to the protection of public health, when for instance urban wastewater is discharged in bathing waters or in water bodies used for the abstraction of drinking water, or when urban wastewater is used as an indicator for parameters relevant for public health. It should also ensure access to sanitation and to key information related to the governance of the urban wastewater collection and treatment activities. This Directive should also contribute to the progressive reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from urban wastewater collection and treatment activities, notably by further reducing nitrogen emissions but also by promoting energy efficiency and production of renewable energies, and thus should contribute to the 2050 objective of Climate Neutrality established under Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European P…

Recital 4: (4) Small agglomerations constitute a significant pressure on 11 % of the surface water bodies in the Union39. To better tackle the pollution from such agglomerations, and to prevent discharges of untreated urban wastewater into the environment, the scope of this Directive should include agglomerations of 750 population equivalent (p.e.) and above.

Recital 5: (5) In order to ensure effective treatment of urban wastewater before discharge into the environment, all urban wastewaters from agglomerations of 750 p.e. and above should be collected in centralised collecting systems. Where such systems are already in place, Member States should ensure that all sources of urban wastewater are connected to them. Where such systems are not connected to one other, Member States should encourage and support small municipalities to join together to manage wastewaters collectively, with this joint management also making a reduction in costs possible.

Recital 6: (6) Exceptionally, where it can be demonstrated that the establishment of a centralised urban wastewater collecting system would produce no environmental benefit or involve excessive costs, Member States should be allowed to use individual systems to treat urban wastewater, as long as they ensure the same level of environmental protection as secondary and tertiary treatment. For this purpose, Member States should establish national and, where appropriate, regional registers to identify individual systems used on their territory and take all necessary measures to ensure that the design of such systems is adequate, that the systems are properly maintained and that they are subject to a regular compliance control. In particular, Member States should ensure that individual systems used for the collection and storage of urban wastewater are impervious and leak-proof, and that monitoring and inspection of the systems are carried out at regular and fixed intervals. In order to allow for a harmonised regulation of individual systems among Member States, the Commission should provide guidance on the requirements mentioned above on the design, operation and maintenance of such individual systems.

Recital 7: (7) During rainfall, storm water overflows and urban runoff discharges represent a sizeable remaining source of pollution discharged into the environment. Those emissions are expected to increase due to the combined effects of urbanisation, and progressive change of the rain regime linked with climate change. Climate change will indeed increase the likelihood of storm water overflows and urban runoff. Urban wastewater management infrastructures are therefore particularly vulnerable to climate change. Solutions to reduce that source of pollution should be defined at local and regional level taking into account the specific local conditions, including climatic ones and the vulnerability of those infrastructures. It would also be beneficial to have local and regional action plans covering multiple localities when they are all liable to be impacted by the same watercourses in circumstances of abundant precipitation and, implicitly, by urban runoff. They should be based on an integrated quantitative and qualitative water management in urban areas. In addition, control at source including through nature-based solutions should be mainstreamed as a first step to avoid pollution in urban runoff, as well as co-ordination of measures to control the quantity of urban runoff at source. Therefore, Member States should ensure that integrated urban wastewater management plans, including a stress test assessment of the vulnerability of collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants …

Recital 7 a (new): (7a) When establishing their integrated urban wastewater management plans, Member States should take into account the cumulative effects of demographic changes, meteorological phenomena and the expected sea level rise, especially in coastal areas and littoral regions. Those cumulative effects, which cause overflows in wastewater treatment plants, have a negative impact on the environment and on health by increasing pollution. Wastewater management in such areas should be appropriately addressed, including regular monitoring of wastewater system maintenance.

Recital 7 b (new): (7b) Better management of water quality and quantities in urban areas will contribute to climate adaptation. In order to reduce the negative effects of storm water overflows, Member States should aim at increasing green and blue spaces in urban areas by taking into account the Urban Greening platform which provides guidance and knowledge to support towns and cities. Member States should aim as well to develop new infrastructures, giving priority to green and blue infrastructure such as green urban spaces, green roofs, vegetated ditches, treatment wetlands and storage ponds designed to support biodiversity. Preventive measures aimed at avoiding the entry of unpolluted rain waters into collecting systems, and measures increasing green and blue spaces should include measures promoting natural water retention or rainwater harvesting. Other actions could include increasing the number of parks, trees and woodland patches with native species, green roofs, wildflower grasslands, gardens, tree-lined streets, urban meadows and hedges, ponds and watercourses limiting impermeable surfaces in agglomerations and the amount of city horticulture, which can not only create a good habitat for pollinators, birds and other species, but also directly help to control and reduce rainwater and related pollution, while improving the overall quality of life in such cities. Where relevant, water reuse should be considered in the context of the development of the integrated urban wastewater management p…

Recital 8: (8) In order to ensure that the integrated urban wastewater management plans are cost-effective, it is important that they are based on best practices in advanced urban areas, taking also into account the availability of digital tools and the constant change in the chemical composition of wastewaters resulting from the appearance of new products on the market, which necessitates appropriate measures for the identification and elimination of such products from the wastewaters. Therefore, the measures to be considered should be based on a thorough analysis of the local conditions and should favour a preventive approach aiming at limiting the collection of unpolluted rain waters and optimising the use of existing infrastructures to generate energy savings and contribute to emission reduction. With a preference for ‘green’ and ‘blue’ developments and investments, new grey infrastructures should only be envisaged where absolutely necessary. In order to protect the environment, in particular the coastal and marine environment, and public health, including the protection of surface, ground and drinking water, from being adversely affected by the discharge of insufficiently treated urban wastewater, secondary treatment should be applied to all discharges of urban wastewater from agglomerations of 750 p.e. and above.

Recital 9 a (new): (9a) It is of great importance that the Commission take the enormous difficulties and challenges for wastewater treatment into account, such as in the revision of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (the ‘REACH Regulation’) regarding the phase out of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In its communication of 14 October 2020 entitled ‘Chemical Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment’, the Commission pointed out that PFAS require special attention, considering the large number of cases of contamination of soil and water - including drinking water - in the Union and globally, the number of people affected with a full spectrum of illnesses and the related societal and economic costs, and it set the objective of phasing out PFAS in the Union, unless they are proven essential for society.

Recital 10: (10) Tertiary treatment should also be mandatory in agglomerations of 10 000 p.e. and above that are discharging in areas subject to, or at risk of, eutrophication. In order to ensure that efforts to limit eutrophication are coordinated at the level of the relevant basins for the whole catchment zone, areas where eutrophication is considered an issue according to currently available data should be listed in this Directive. Additionally, to ensure coherence between relevant Union legislation, Member States should identify other areas subject to, or at risk of, eutrophication on their territory, and identify whether the areas are nitrogen- or phosphorus- sensitive notably on the basis of data collected under Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council40, Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council41and Council Directive 91/676/EEC42. The reinforcement of the limit values, a more coherent and inclusive identification of the areas sensitive to eutrophication and the obligation to ensure tertiary treatment for all large facilities will, in combination, contribute to limit eutrophication. Since this will require additional investments on the national level, Member States should be given sufficient time to establish the required infrastructure.

Recital 10 a (new): (10a) The development of the potential of the urban wastewater sector towards a circular economy of nutrients, and the promotion of the implementation of water reuse, in line with the new Circular Economy Action Plan1a, would entail that reclaimed water which is to be used for agricultural irrigation purposes in compliance with the European Water Reuse Regulation, could apply less restrictive requirements for nutrient removal established in this Directive. / 1a Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A new Circular Economy Action Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe.

Recital 11: (11) Recent scientific knowledge underpinning several Commission strategies43highlights the need to take action to address the issue of micro-pollutants, which are now detected in all waters in the Union and which are being generated by the appearance on the market of new domestic or industrial products which necessitate new methods of identification and elimination from wastewaters. Some of those micropollutants are hazardous for public health and the environment even in small quantities. An additional treatment, i.e. quaternary treatment, should therefore be introduced in order to ensure that a large spectrum of micro-pollutants is removed from urban wastewater. Quaternary treatment should first focus on organic micro-pollutants, which represent a significant part of the pollution and for which removal technologies are already designed. The treatment should be consistent with Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (the ‘Water framework Directive’) and be imposed based on the precautionary principle combined with a risk-based approach. Therefore, all urban wastewater treatment plants of 150 000 p.e. and above should provide quaternary treatment, as those facilities represent a significant share of micro-pollutant discharges in the environment and the removal of micro-pollutants by urban wastewater treatment plants at such scale is cost-effective. For agglomerations of between 35 000 p.e. and 150 000 p.e., Member States should be required to apply …

Recital 13: (13) The quaternary treatment necessary to remove micro-pollutants from urban wastewater will imply additional costs, such as costs related to monitoring and new advanced equipment to be installed in certain urban wastewater treatment plants. In order to cover these additional costs and in accordance with the polluter-pays principle expressed in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), it is essential that the producers placing on the Union market products containing substances which, at the end of their life, are found as micro-pollutants in urban wastewaters (‘micro-pollutant substances’) take responsibility for the additional treatment required to remove those substances, generated in the context of their professional activities. A system of extended producer responsibility is the most appropriate means to achieve this, as it would limit the financial impact on the taxpayer and water tariff, while providing an incentive to develop greener products. To limit unintended consequences on the availability, affordability and accessibility of vital products, the producer responsibility should be complemented by national funding, due to the high societal value of the sectors covered by the extended producer responsibility. Extended producer responsibility schemes should be implemented in line with the deadline provided in the transposition provisions of this Directive. Pursuant to Article 191 TFEU, Union policy on the environment is to aim at a…

Recital 13 a (new): (13a) Micro- and nanoplastic pollution is often caused by dyeing and washing processes of synthetic textiles as synthetic microfibres are released into wastewater. This is particularly the case for plastic microfibres or nanoplastics, fragments of macroplastics, macrowaste or particles from other forms of plastic degradation, the presence of which in the environment and the ocean has been underestimated for a long time. Most micro-plastics from textiles are released during the first five to ten washes, which only solidifies the link between fast fashion and micro-plastic pollution. The Commission should submit a legislative proposal, accompanied by an impact assessment, in line with its initiative on ‘Microplastics pollution – measures to reduce its impact on the environment’ to oblige the fitting of microfibre filters for new washing machines at EU level by 31 December 2027.

Recital 14: (14) Exonerations from the extended producer responsibility obligations should nevertheless be possible where products are placed on the market in small quantities, i.e. less than 2 tonnes of products calculated for the Union market, since the additional administrative burden for the producer would in such cases be disproportionate compared to the environmental benefits. Exonerations should also be possible when the producer can demonstrate that the products they place on the market are rapidly biodegradable or that no micro-pollutants are generated at the end of life of a product. It might be the case for instance where it can be proven that the residues from a product are rapidly biodegradable in the wastewaters and the environment or not reaching the urban wastewater treatment plants. The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts to establish detailed criteria to identify the products placed on the market that do not generate micro-pollutants in wastewaters at the end of their life. When developing these criteria, the Commission should take into account scientific or other available technical information, including relevant international standards.

Recital 14 a (new): (14a) When ensuring that producers have extended producer responsibility, Member States should be able to add other sectors, such as pesticides, household products and plastic additives, based on the evidence of the presence of micro-pollutants in the water after passing through tertiary treatment, in the sludge or permanently in the system in order to reflect national specificities.

Recital 15: (15) In order to avoid possible internal market distortions, minimum requirements for the implementation of the extended producer responsibility should be established in this Directive, while the practical organisation of the system should be decided at national level. The Commission should provide guidance on the extended producer responsibility schemes to allow for harmonised implementation among Member States. The contributions of the producers should be proportionate to the quantities of the products they place on the market and the hazardousness of their residues. The contributions should, together with national financing, cover the costs for the monitoring activities for micro-pollutants, the collection, analysis, reporting and impartial verification of statistics on the quantities and hazardousness of products placed on the market, the costs of providing adequate information to consumers and the application and operation of the quaternary treatment to urban wastewater in an efficient manner and in accordance with this Directive. Since urban wastewater is treated collectively, it is appropriate to introduce a requirement for producers to join a centralised organisation which can implement their obligations under the extended producer responsibility on their behalf.

Recital 16: (16) The evaluation has also shown that the wastewater treatment sector offers the opportunity to significantly reduce its own energy consumption and to produce renewable energy, for example by better use of the available surfaces in urban wastewater treatment plants for solar energy production or by producing biogas from sludge, as well as by heat or kinetic energy or other renewable energy sources which may become available as a result of future research in line with the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC). The evaluation also illustrated that, without clear legal obligations, only partial progress can be expected in this sector. In this context, Member States should be required to ensure that the total annual energy used by all urban wastewater treatment plants on their national territory treating a load of 10 000 p.e. and above does not exceed the production of energy from renewable sources as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council44, by those urban wastewater treatment plants through, for instance, on site or next-to-site generation, or contributions to an external energy production system, such as sending sludge to a centralised biogas production facility. That objective should be progressively met with interim targets by 31 December 2040. Reaching this energy neutrality target will contribute to reduce the avoidable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the sector by 46 %, while supporting the achievement of …

Recital 16 a (new): (16a) Wastewater is one of the four main sources of methane emissions, next to agriculture, energy and waste. Therefore, the Commission should propose by 31 December 2025 and based on an impact assessment, a 2030 Union binding methane emission reduction target covering all relevant emitting sectors. Achievements in methane reductions are 82,5 times more effective, over a 20-year span, than CO2 reductions, and with 12 years compared to more than hundreds of years for CO2, methane is much faster to dissolve from the atmosphere and therefore highly relevant and advantageous to reduce, in accordance with the commitment made under the Global Methane Pledge. Member States should ensure that the wastewater sector achieves the climate neutrality target by 2050 at the latest, as set out in the European Climate Law.

Recital 17: (17) Since the transboundary nature of water pollution requires cooperation between neighbouring Member States or third countries in addressing such pollution and identifying measures to tackle its source, Member States should be required to inform each other or the third country if significant water pollution originating from urban wastewater discharges in one Member State or third country impacts or is likely to impact the water quality of another Member State or third country. Such information should be immediate in case of incidental pollution significantly affecting downstream water bodies by means of timely alarm systems at local, regional and cross-border level in the event of incidental pollution. The Commission should be informed and, if necessary, participate in meetings at the request of Member States. It is also important to tackle the transboundary pollution from third countries sharing the same water bodies with some of the Member States. For the purpose of dealing with pollution coming or arriving in third countries, the cooperation and coordination with third countries may be carried out in the framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Water Convention50 or other relevant regional Conventions such as the Regional Seas or Rivers Conventions.

Recital 18: (18) In order to ensure the protection of the environment and health in line with the One Health approach, Member States should ensure that the collecting system and urban wastewater treatment plants built to comply with the requirements of this Directive are designed, constructed, operated, and maintained to ensure sufficient performance under all normal local climatic conditions and should continuously adapt their methods of identifying pollutants in wastewaters in lockstep with the placing on the market of new products which could subsequently be found in wastewaters.

Recital 19: (19) Urban wastewater treatment plants also receive non-domestic wastewater, including industrial wastewater, which can contain a range of pollutants, including microfibres and nanoplastics not explicitly covered by Directive 91/271/EEC, such as heavy metals, micro-plastics, micro-pollutants and other chemicals. In most instances, there is a poor understanding and knowledge of such pollution which could deteriorate the functioning of the treatment process and contribute to the pollution of the receiving waters, but also prevent the recovery of sludge and the re-use of treated wastewater. Member States should therefore regularly monitor and report on such non-domestic pollution that enters the urban wastewater treatment plants and is discharged into water bodies. To prevent pollution from non-domestic wastewater discharges at source, releases from industries or enterprises connected to collecting systems should be subject to prior authorisation. In order to ensure that collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants are technically capable of receiving and treating the incoming pollution, the operators who manage urban wastewater treatment plants receiving non-domestic wastewater should be consulted and give their assent before those permits are issued and should be able to consult the issued permits in order to be able to adapt their treatment processes. In addition, operators of collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants receiving non-domestic wastewat…

Recital 19 a (new): (19a) At the heart of this water-energy nexus is the rapidly growing realisation that climate and water systems are linked, and changes in one system induce important, non-linear changes in the other one. Climate neutrality goals and attention to water resources should therefore be developed in a mutually reinforcing way by achieving a water-smart society. That means a society in which the value of water is recognised and realised, all available water sources are managed so that water scarcity and pollution are avoided; the water system is resilient in relation to the impact of demographic changes, droughts and floods, and all relevant stakeholders are engaged to guarantee sustainable water governance, while water and resource loops are largely closed to foster a circular economy.

Recital 20: (20) In order to ensure a proper implementation of this Directive and notably the respect of the emission limit values, it is important to monitor discharges of treated urban wastewater into the environment. The monitoring should be done through the establishment at national level of a mandatory prior authorisation system in order to discharge the treated urban wastewater into the environment. In addition, in order to continuously prevent both accidental acute leaks as well as chronic diffuse leaks of plastic biomedia including but not limited to biocarriers, biobeads and polystyrene beads the environment from urban wastewater treatment plants it is essential to include in the discharge authorisations specific obligations to use appropriate retention solutions such as grids and meshes to prevent discharges and to continuously monitor any discharges of plastic biomedia. In order to prepare for the expected growth in the use of biomedia as well as technological advances in the sector, the definition of plastic biomedia should encompass all existing technologies, while at the same time being future-proof and flexible enough to account for future advancements in this area.

Recital 21: (21) In order to ensure the protection of the environment, direct discharges of biodegradable non-domestic wastewater into the environment from certain industrial sectors should be subject to prior authorisation on national level and appropriate requirements. Those requirements should ensure that direct discharges from certain industrial sectors are subject to secondary, tertiary and quaternary treatment as necessary for the protection of health in line with the One Health approach and the environment, and that, in the final analysis, the parameters set for treated wastewaters are respected.

Recital 22: (22) According to Article 168(1) TFEU, Union action complements national policies and is to be directed towards improving public health and preventing diseases. In order to ensure optimal use of relevant public health data from urban wastewaters, urban wastewater surveillance should be set up and used for preventive or early warning purposes, for instance in the detection of specific viruses in urban wastewater as a signal of the emergence of epidemics or pandemics, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. Member States should establish a permanent dialogue and coordination between competent authorities responsible for public health and competent authorities responsible for urban wastewater management and clearly allocate roles and responsibilities and costs among those competent authorities. In the context of that coordination, a list of parameters relevant for public health to be monitored in urban wastewaters should be established, as well as the frequency and location of the sampling. This approach will take advantage of and complement other Union initiatives in the field of public health protection, such as environmental monitoring that includes wastewater surveillance52. Based on information gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic and experience gained from the implementation of the Commission Recommendation on a common approach to establish a systematic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in wastewaters in the EU53(the ‘recommendation’), Member States should…

Recital 23 a (new): (23a) This Directive acknowledges the 'One Health' approach, as recognised by the World Health Organization, to be an integrated and unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems. The 'One Health' approach recognises that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment, including ecosystems, are closely interlinked and interdependent. It is therefore appropriate to lay down that wastewater treatment should encompass avoiding adverse health effects including epidemics, and to respect the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In respect of the G7 commitment to acknowledge the rapid rise in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) on a global scale, it is necessary to promote the prudent and responsible use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicines.

Recital 24: (24) In order to protect the environment and health in line with the One Health approach, Member States should identify the risks caused by urban wastewaters management. To that end, as a prior approach, control at source should be promoted to prevent pollution in urban wastewater in line with Article 191(2) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. On the basis of that identification, and where necessary to comply with the requirements of the Union water legislation, Member States should take more stringent measures for the urban wastewater collection and treatment than the measures required to comply with the minimum requirements set out in this Directive. Depending on the situation, those more stringent measures can include, inter alia, preventive measures the establishment of collecting systems, the development of integrated urban wastewater management plans or the application of secondary, tertiary or quaternary treatment to urban wastewater for agglomerations or urban wastewater treatment plants that do not reach the p.e. thresholds triggering the application of the standard requirements, as well as the review of discharge authorisations and the use of equivalent treatment ensuring the same level of environmental protection. They can also include more advanced treatment than the treatment necessary to respect the minimum requirements or disinfection of treated urban wastewaters necessary to comply with Directive 2006/7/EC of the European Parliament and of …

Recital 25: (25) Sustainable Development Goal 6 and the associated target requiring Member States to ‘achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations’ by 2030.56Furthermore, Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights57states that everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water and sanitation. Against that background, and in accordance with the recommendations in the WHO Guidelines for Sanitation and Health58and the provisions of the Protocol on Water and Health59Member States should tackle the issue of access to sanitation at national level. That should be done through actions ensuring access to sanitation for all, for example by setting up sanitation facilities in public spaces, as well as by encouraging the availability of appropriate sanitation facilities in public administrations and public buildings free of charge and\or making them affordable to all. Sanitation facilities should allow the safe management and disposal of human urine and faeces and changing of menstrual products. They should be safely managed, which implies that they should be accessible to all at all times, including for people with particular needs, such as children, older persons, persons with disabilities and homeless people, that they should be placed in a location that ensures maximum safety of users, and that they should be h…

Recital 26: (26) The specific situation of minority cultures, such as Roma and Travellers, whether settled or not, and in particular their lack of access to sanitation, was acknowledged in the Communication from the Commission of 7 October 2020 ‘A Union of Equality: EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation’, which calls for increasing effective equal access to essential services. Overall, it is appropriate that Member States pay particular attention to vulnerable groups or groups that are marginalised due to factors related to their socio-economic situation, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, homelessness, legal status, religious conviction or other reasons by taking the necessary measures to ensure access to sanitation for those groups. It is important that the identification of those groups is coherent with Article 16(1) of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Measures to improve access to sanitation by vulnerable and marginalised groups might include providing sanitation facilities in public and private spaces for free or for a low service fee as well as in public administration buildings, improving or maintaining the connection to adequate systems to collect urban wastewater, and raising awareness of the nearest sanitation facilities. / (deleted)

Recital 28: (28) The evaluation concluded that sludge management could be improved to better align it with the principles of the circular economy and of the waste hierarchy as defined in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC. The actions to better monitor and reduce pollution at source from non-domestic discharges will help improving the quality of the sludge produced and ensure its safe use in agriculture and other sectors. In order to ensure and facilitate a proper and safe recovery of nutrients from sludge and wastewater and to ensure coherence in relation to the Union's aim to ensure the availability of secure and sustainable supply chains for critical raw materials, including the critical substance phosphorus, minimum recovery rates should be defined at Union level while there is also a need to work more closely with academia and researchers to identify and apply the most appropriate methods of recovering nutrients from sludge for subsequent use in agriculture. The Commission should promote legislative frameworks for the development of a functional market for recovered phosphorus and nitrogen, and the Member States should facilitate market access and further use of recovered phosphorus. Requirements on recovery should remain open to future developments in technology and process routes for nutrient recovery. Member States should consider the extraction of valuable resources from sewage sludge for agricultural purposes in order to consolidate the resilience and sustainability of the secto…

Recital 29: (29) Additional monitoring is necessary to verify compliance with the new requirements concerning micro-pollutants, non-domestic pollution, energy neutrality, all GHG emissions including nitrous oxide, methane, and storm water overflows and urban runoff. Such monitoring supports national inventory reporting, provides the necessary infrastructure to implement IPCC Guidelines for monitoring and enables the future development of action plans for science-based mitigation aligned with the Paris Agreement. To verify the performance of the quaternary treatment concerning the reduction of micro-pollutants in urban wastewater discharges, it is sufficient to monitor a limited set of representative micro-pollutants. The monitoring frequencies should build on to the current best practices, as currently practiced in Switzerland. They should be expanded to capture particularly hazardous substances such as Telmisartan, Bisphenol A, Beta-estradiol and Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). To remain cost-effective, those obligations should be adapted to the size of the urban wastewater treatment plants and of the agglomerations. The monitoring will also contribute to provide data for the overall Environmental Monitoring Framework as set up under the 8th Environmental Action Programme63, and more specifically feed the Zero Pollution Monitoring Framework underpinning it64and support digital transition in the water sector in line with the Union’s Digital Strategy.

Recital 30: (30) In order to reduce administrative burden and better use the possibilities offered by digitalisation, the reporting on the implementation of the Directive should be improved and simplified by removing the obligation for Member States to report every two years to the Commission and for the Commission to publish bi-yearly reports. It should be replaced by a requirement for Member States to improve, with the support of the European Environment Agency (EEA), the existing national standardised data sets established under Directive 91/271/EEC, and to regularly update them. Permanent access to the national databases should be provided to the Commission and the EEA and should be made available to the public via a centralised Union-wide database on urban wastewater treatment. That database should allow for comparison between Member States of the performance of treatment plants to prevent pollution, allow benchmarking of measures taken and support compliance with this Directive, including the application of extended producer responsibility with a special focus on the sources of pollution. In order to ensure complete information on the application of this Directive, the data sets should include information on compliance of urban wastewater treatment plants with the treatment requirements (pass/fail, loads and concentration of pollutants discharged), on the level of achievement of the objectives of energy neutrality, on GHG emissions of the treatment plants above 10 000 p.e. and on m…