EurEau News
EurEau meets with Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall
On 16 February, Pär Dalhielm (EurEau President), Brian Murphy (EurEau Vice President) and Oliver Loebel (EurEau Secretary General) met with Commission Roswall to discuss the implementation of the Water Resilience Strategy and two topics impacting water resilience: the revision of the Water Framework Directive and the universal PFAS restriction.
European Parliament workshop on PFAS substitutes
EurEau, alongside Ingeborg Ter Laak, MEP (EPP, Netherlands), hosted a roundtable on Available Alternatives to PFAS on 25 February in the European Parliament. It brought together experts from the Forever Pollution Project, ChemSec and producers of PFAS-free products.
Speaking out
Policy Advisor Sébastien Mouret spoke at the Bulgarian Water Association’s annual benchmarking conference in Panagyurishte (BG) on 3 February.
EurEau Vice President, Brian Murphy, spoke at the Economist Impact Water Summit on 11 February in London as part of the panel discussion on designing resilient water systems: scaling nature-based infrastructure for drought, flood and supply security.
Oliver Loebel presented the priorities of drinking water operators to the members of European Drinking Water (product suppliers) on 18 February.
EU news
Water legislation
UWWTD: General Court of the EU dismisses lawsuits brought by pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors against EPR
EurEau welcomes the decision of the General Court of the European Union to dismiss as inadmissible the lawsuits brought by pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies and associations against the provisions on extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (EU 2024/3019). Our full reaction is here.
WFD/GWD/EQSD revision: Council endorses trilogue agreement
The agreement reached in trilogue in September on revising the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its daughter Directives focusing on priority substances was endorsed by Member States on 17 February, paving the way towards adoption after over three years of negotiation. The final hurdle will be a plenary vote in the European Parliament, currently scheduled for 25 March.
We welcome this long-overdue step as work on the next River Basin Management Plan cycle begins, and urge MEPs to approve the trilogue text without delay.
In December, the European Commission announced its intention to further revise the WFD in a separate process. We will follow this new legislative procedure closely.
WFD and Nitrates Directive: Commission hosts stakeholder roundtable
The European Commission held a stakeholder roundtable on 18 February to exchange views on how environmental rules can be simplified for the farming sector. The event was co-hosted by Commissioner for Environment and Water Resilience Jessika Roswall and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, and focused on the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Nitrates Directive, Birds Directive and Habitats Directive.
The EurEau representative, Ingrid Keuper, expert hydrologist at Flemish utility De Watergroep, provided informaton about the strategy of De Watergroep to deal with the persisting contamination of Flemish drinking water resources.
Water and the environment
Wet wipes: EurEau input to the evaluation of the Single-Use Plastics Directive
The Commission is evaluating the Single-Use Plastics Directive through a Call for Evidence and a Public Consultation. The directive introduced requirements for products such as wet wipes and hygienic articles, which may lead to sewer and pump blockages.
While the directive has shown a number of positive results, marking requirements are not applied by all manufacturers, awareness measures are hardly implemented, and only a small number of countries apply extended producer responsibility to damages to the sewer infrastructure.
PFAS: New Commission study highlights staggering societal costs of PFAS
The European Commission released its study “Cost of PFAS pollution to our society“, providing further evidence of how much we pay to maintain PFAS uses across the European Economic Area.
The costs for removing PFAS from raw drinking water to meet current EU requirements were estimated at €264 million in 2024. The removal of ultra short-chain PFAS would add around €14-15 billion per year. If urban wastewater treatment plants needed to remove PFAS to comply with the new Environmental Quality Standards, they would have to face an annual bill of more than €70billion.
Our reaction is here.
Other news
Ukraine war: Commission requests help to ensure clean drinking water
The European Commission launched a call to support the Ukrainian water sector with technical equipment. DG ECHO has established a programme to support the entire process (including some transport costs to Ukraine). For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. See also Channelling aid donations to Ukrainians – European Commission
ZeroPM webinars
A webinar on Beyond Grab Samples: Passive Sampling for Smarter Environmental Monitoring will take place on 04.03 at 14-15hCET, covering the main types of passive samplers currently used in environmental monitoring and the chemical groups they are designed to measure. Register.
A second webinar will be held on Understanding Fluoropolymers and Their Life Cycle, on 11.03 at 14-15h CET, looking this time at key findings from the OECD Synthesis Report on Understanding Fluoropolymers and Their Life Cycle. Register.
Events
04 March 2026 – Brussels. Workshop on the first Water Resilience R&I Strategy stakeholder consultation event. 14-18h. Register.
17 March 2026 – Brussels & online. Euractiv event: Improving Europe’s water quality – How can the revised UWWTD be implemented fairly and effectively? Oliver Loebel, EurEau Secretary General, will be on the panel.
5 May 2026 – Brussels. The Parliament’s Circular Economy Forum 2026. Register.
17 June 2026 – Brussels. DWD Symposium on drinking water contact materials, co-hosted by EurEau, EDW and European Metals. Register. (link TBC)
23-27 August 2026 – World Water Week 2026. Read the thematic scope for 2026.
16-18 September 2026 – Svenskt Vatten hosts the NORDIWA Nordic Drinking Water Conference in Stockholm. You can visit the conference website: NORDIWA: Home.
4-8 October 2026 – IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2026, Glasgow, UK.
18–20 November 2026 – EBC annual benchmarking workshop, Madrid, Spain. www.waterbenchmark.org.