Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedRecital 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…

AddedRecital 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.

AddedRecital 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 …

AddedRecital 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…

AddedRecital 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)

AddedRecital 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…

AddedRecital 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.

AddedRecital 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…

AddedRecital 31 a (new): (31a) Substantial funding from the Union is currently available to meet the costs of implementing the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Cohesion Policy allocations have amounted to EUR 38,8 billion for the wastewater sector since 2000. Besides cohesion policy funding for direct investment in the water sector, Union funds, including cohesion policy funds, Horizon 2020 and LIFE funds, also supported research in the Union water sector. Between 2000 and 2017, the Union financed a total of 138 LIFE projects related to wastewater treatment. Further support at Union level will be necessary to implement new ambitious goals and leave no one behind while ensuring a high level of urban wastewater treatment and citizens’ access to such treatment across Europe. The financing of the quaternary treatment however should be financed through the national EPR schemes together with national financing to limit the impact on citizens’ water bills and to ensure that the polluter pays principle is respected. As an additional measure in line with the implementation assessment, the Commission should ensure that appropriate financial means are provided for wastewater treatment to ensure complex fulfilment of the obligations provided for in this Directive by all Member States through the investment programs of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF, post-2027).

AddedRecital 32: (32) The urban wastewater collection and treatment sector is specific, with public and small enterprises being connected to the collecting system without having the possibility to choose their operators. It is therefore important to secure access to water and sanitation. It is also important to ensure public access to operators’ key performance indicators, such as the level of treatment achieved, the costs of treatment, the energy used and produced, and the related GHG emissions and carbon footprint. In order to make the public more aware of the implications of urban wastewater treatment, key information on the annual wastewater collection and treatment costs for each household should be provided in an easily accessible manner on the invoices, while other detailed information should be accessible in a user-friendly format online, on a website of the operator or the competent authority.

AddedRecital 33: (33) Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council66 guarantees the right of access to environmental information in the Member States in line with the 1998 Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the ‘Aarhus Convention’). The Aarhus Convention encompasses broad obligations related both to making environmental information available upon request and actively disseminating such information. It is important that the provisions of this Directive related to access to information and data-sharing arrangements complement that Directive, by establishing the obligation to make available to the public online information on the collection and treatment of urban wastewater in a user-friendly manner, without creating a separate legal regime. In ensuring that the public in the concerned area is informed of the harmful and significant contamination levels in the event of water pollution above the threshold set by the Union or the national legislation, Member States should take into account guidance by the Commission and establish public warning systems based on best-practice solutions such as the Cell Broadcast Technology.

AddedRecital 35: (35) To adapt this Directive to scientific and technical progress, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending certain parts of the Annexes with regard to the requirements for the secondary, tertiary and quaternary treatment and the requirements for specific authorisations for discharges of non-domestic wastewater into collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants and in respect of supplementing this Directive by establishing minimum reuse and recycling rates for phosphorus and nitrogen from urban wastewater and sludge, in order to incentivise a variety of recovery techniques, including pyrolysis and struvite precipitation, as well as nutrient recovery from sludge. Considering that phosphorous and nitrogen are valuable resources for agriculture, the Commission should adopt those delegated acts within one year of the end of the transposition period for this directive. Within this time period, it is of particular importance that the Commission carries out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematica…

AddedRecital 36: (36) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission for the adoption of standards for the design of individual systems, for the adoption of monitoring and assessment methods for the indicators of the quaternary treatment, for the establishment and updating of the list of micro-pollutants, for the establishment of common conditions and criteria for the application of the exoneration for certain products from extended producer responsibility, for establishing methodologies to support the development of integrated urban wastewater management plans and to measure antimicrobial resistance and micro-plastics in urban wastewater, and for the adoption of the format of, and modalities for, presenting the information to be provided by Member States and compiled by the EEA on the implementation of this Directive. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council67. The Commission should adopt a delegated act to set requirements for the monitoring of micro-plastics in urban wastewater provided for in this Directive, in accordance with the procedure referred to in this Directive, 12 months after they are added to the watch list under Directive 2022/0344 (COD).

AddedRecital 37 a (new): (37a) It is important to ensure that this Directive provides for the achievement of a better quality of water while not jeopardising the accessibility, availability and affordability of vital products.

AddedRecital 37 b (new): (37b) The Member States should be able to envisage additional reimbursement of the difference of costs generated by the requirements provided for in this Directive for the purpose of supporting essential medicines in order to ensure they remain available on the market and accessible for citizens.

AddedRecital 38: (38) Pursuant to the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making68, the Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Directive within a certain period of time from the date set for its transposition. That evaluation should be based on experience gained and data collected during the implementation of this Directive, on any available WHO recommendations, and on relevant scientific, analytical, and epidemiological data. In the evaluation, particular attention should be given to the possible necessity to introduce reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions from the wastewater treatment sector, the need to remove micro-plastics and PFAS from urban wastewater before discharge, the need to adapt of the list of products to be covered by extended producer responsibility according to the evolution of the range of products placed on the market, and to the method of eliminating and denaturing such products at the final use stage without major environmental impacts, the improvement of knowledge on the presence of micro-pollutants in the wastewaters and their impacts on public health and the environment, and data from the new monitoring and analysis obligations on micro-pollutants in the inlets and outlets of the urban wastewater treatment plants. In taking the relevant measures at Union and national level to achieve the zero pollution objective for water pollution, Member States, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission should be guided by the ‘precautionary …

AddedArticle 1 – paragraph 1: This Directive lays down rules on the collection, treatment, and discharge of urban wastewater, to protect the environment and health, in accordance with the One Health approach, while progressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the energy balance of urban wastewater collection and treatment activities while contributing to the transition towards a circular economy. It also lays down rules on access to sanitation for all, on transparency of the urban wastewater sector and on the regular surveillance of public health relevant parameters in urban wastewaters, and through integrated wastewater management planning it aims to increase synergies with climate change adaptation and urban ecosystem restoration action.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1: (1) ‘urban wastewater’ means any of the following:

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 – point a (new): a) domestic wastewater;

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 – point b (new): (b) the mixture of domestic wastewater and non-domestic wastewater;

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 – point c (new): (c) the mixture of domestic wastewater and urban runoff;

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 – point d (new): (d) the mixture of domestic wastewater, non-domestic wastewater and urban runoff;

Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 3 – introductory part: (3) ‘ non-domestic wastewater ’ means any wastewater which is not predominantly a product of the human metabolism or household activities and is discharged into collecting systems from premises used for either of the following:

Change 2

RemovedClarifies the difference between and the intention of the categories of domestic and non-domestic wastewater.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4: (4) 'agglomeration' means an area where the pollution load of urban wastewater is sufficiently concentrated (25 p.e. per hectare or above) for urban wastewater to be collected and conducted to an urban wastewater treatment plant or to a final discharge point;

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4: (4) 'agglomeration' means an area where the pollution load of urban wastewater is sufficiently concentrated (10 p.e. per hectare or above) in the area of permanent housing, for urban wastewater to be collected and conducted to an urban wastewater treatment plant or to a final discharge point;

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5: (5) ‘urban runoff’ means rainwater, snow or meltwater from agglomerations collected by combined or separate sewers;

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16: (16) ‘micro-pollutant’ means a substance, including its breakdown products, that is usually present in the environment and urban wastewaters in concentrations of micrograms per litre, or below, and which can be considered hazardous to human health or the environment based on any of the criteria set out in Part 3 and Part 4 of Annex I to Regulation EC69 ;

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6: (6) 'storm water overflow’ means discharge of partially treated and untreated urban wastewater in receiving waters from combined sewers or from urban wastewater treatment plants caused by excessive rainfall;

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point b: (b) all their sources of urban domestic wastewater are connected to the collecting system.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16: (16) ‘micro-pollutant’ means a substance as defined by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, including its breakdown products, that is usually present in the environment and urban wastewaters in concentrations of micrograms per litre, or below, and which can be considered hazardous to health and the environment based on the criteria set out in Part 3 and Part 4 of Annex I to Regulation EC69;

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. By 31 December 2030, Member States shall ensure that all agglomerations with a p.e. of between 500 and 2 000 comply with the following requirements:

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19: (19) 'Producer Responsibility Organisation’ means an organisation established under the supervision of Member States’ competent authorities with support to enable producers to fulfil their obligations under Article 9;

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 2 – point b: (b) all their sources of urban domestic wastewater are connected to the collecting system.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19 a (new): (19a) ‘polluter pays principle’ means a principle according to which polluters shall bear the costs of their pollution or environmental damage, including the cost of measures taken to prevent, control and remedy pollution;

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 2: 2. For agglomerations of between 500 p.e. and 2 000 p.e., Member States shall ensure that urban wastewater entering collecting systems is subject to secondary treatment in accordance with paragraph 3 or an equivalent treatment before discharge by 31 December 2030.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 20: (20) ‘sanitation’ means facilities and services for the safe, hygienic, secure, and socially and culturally acceptable disposal of human urine and faeces, and for the changing and disposal of menstrual products, that provide privacy and ensures dignity;

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 4: 4. The load expressed in p.e. shall be calculated on the basis of the maximum average weekly load entering the urban wastewater treatment plant during the year, excluding unusual weather situations, such as due to heavy rain.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 21 a (new): (21a) ‘One Health Approach’ means an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals, plants and ecosystems. It recognises that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment including ecosystems are closely interlinked and inter-dependent;

RemovedUnusual weather situations in the future will not only include heavy rain, but also droughts will impact the functioning of the wastewater treatment plants.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 22: (22) ‘public concerned’ means the public affected or likely to be affected by, or having an interest in, the decision-making procedures for the implementation of the obligations laid down in this Directive, including non-governmental organisations promoting the protection of health, in line with the One Health approach, or of the environment;

RemovedArticle 7 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1: By 31 December 2025, Member States shall establish a list of areas on their territory that are sensitive to eutrophication and update that list every five years starting on 31 December 2030, including with information on whether they are phosphorus-sensitive or nitrogen-sensitive areas.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 23: (23) ‘plastic biomedia’ means any plastic support used for the development of bacteria, including but not limited to biocarriers, biobeads, polystyrene beads, that are needed for the treatment of wastewaters;

RemovedAs eutrophication can be due to phosphorus or nitrogen sensitivities in the receiving waters, obligations should be put in place to target the correct nutrient. Including the information in the lists of sensitive areas gives an indication of where action should be prioritised to tackle eutrophication.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 24 a (new): (24a) ‘direct greenhouse gas emissions’ means emission that occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the urban wastewater treatment plant and collecting systems, including gas emissions such as methane and nitrous oxide;

RemovedArticle 7 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 1: The annual mean of the samples taken in accordance with Article 21 and Part D of Annex I of this Directive shall comply with the parametric values set out in table 2 of Part B of Annex I. The maximum permitted number of samples which fail to conform to the parametric values of table 2 of Part B of Annex I is set out in table 4 of Part D of Annex I.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 24 b (new): (24b) 'indirect greenhouse gas emissions' means the release of gases resulting from the production of purchased electricity that is brought into the urban wastewater treatment plant and collection systems, as well as from the operation of such plants and systems.

RemovedArticle 7 – paragraph 5 – point a: (a) 90 % for total phosphorus and 70 % for total nitrogen by 31 December 2035;

AddedArticle 3 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. By 31 December 2032, Member States shall ensure that all agglomerations with a p.e. of between 750 and 2 000 comply with the following requirements:

RemovedArticle 7 – paragraph 5 – point b: (b) 95 % for total phosphorus and 75 % for total nitrogen by 31 December 2040.

AddedArticle 3 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Member States shall take measures to ensure that competent authorities carry out an assessment of the wastewater leakage levels and associated emissions on their territory and of the potential for improvements in wastewater leakage reduction. That assessment shall take into account relevant public health, environmental, technical and economic aspects. Member States shall adopt, by 31 December 2030, national targets to reduce the leakage levels of wastewater in their territory by 31 December 2035. Member States may provide meaningful incentives to ensure that sewage operators in their territory meet the national targets.

RemovedArticle 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1: Member States shall take measures to ensure that producers who place any of the products listed in Annex III on the market have extended producer responsibility. That responsibility shall be shared in part with the public through national financing programmes that are set up for the purpose of the upgrade of urban wastewater treatment plants to include quaternary treatment. Those programmes shall be financed through contributions from national funding, municipal levies, existing water tariffs, and by those producers.

AddedThe Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee finds that Leakage from sewage pipes is an often overlooked and largely unreported source of untreated wastewater that puts groundwater at risk. This can represent a significant share of the pollution load from urban systems on the environment (point 4.11). Therefore, Member States should aim to reduce leakages from sewers.

RemovedPharmaceuticals and PCPs have a societal added value. Society as a whole has a responsibility for the consumption and/ or usage of these products and should therefore contribute toward cleaning it up.

AddedArticle 4 – paragraph 1: 1. By way of derogation from Article 3, where exceptionally the establishment of a collecting system or connection to a collecting system is not justified either because it would produce no environmental benefit or because it would involve excessive cost, Member States shall ensure that individual systems for the treatment of urban wastewaters (‘individual systems’) or other appropriate systems which achieve the same level of health and environmental protection are used.

RemovedArticle 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – introductory part: Such measures shall ensure that the national financing programmes cover:

AddedArticle 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1: Member States shall ensure that the individual systems referred to in paragraph 1 are designed, operated and maintained in a manner that ensures at least the same level of health and environmental protection as the secondary and tertiary treatments referred to in Articles 6 and 7.

RemovedArticle 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point a: (a) the full costs for complying with the requirements set out in Article 8, including the costs for the quaternary treatment of urban wastewater to remove micro-pollutants resulting from the products and their residues the producers place on the market, for the monitoring of micro-pollutants referred to in Article 21(1), point (a); and

AddedArticle 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2: Member States shall ensure that individual systems are registered in a public registry and that regular inspections of those systems are carried out by the competent authority, and shall exchange best practice on the use and operation of individual systems as well as on regular inspections every four years, including the management and operative aspects by the competent authorities.

AddedArticle 4 – paragraph 3: 3. Member States shall establish minimum requirements based on guidance provided by the Commission within 24 months of the entry into force of this Directive on the design, operation, and maintenance of individual systems across the Union and shall establish the requirements for the regular inspections referred to in paragraph 2, second subparagraph.