Our Publications

Water services are essential services. They support the sustainable development of our societies and are fundamental to realising the ambition of the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but little is known about them. This is because the infrastructure is mainly underground, accessible only to a few service engineers and also because it is sometimes situated far from urban areas and protected for obvious security reasons. But also because water services’ organisation differs from country to country due to history, cultural heritage and national or local traditions which result in specific regulatory frameworks.

Our report brings clarity and simplifies the governance of water services in Europe, and our report provides a snapshot of the current situation in the 29 EurEau member countries. It illustrates the diversity of management models, organisational structures, tasks and responsibilities of the players involved at the different levels of governance (EU, national, regional or local).

We support the EU’s Green Deal, including its climate ambitions and Strategies.

We call for full coherence between the RED, other energy legislation (EED), and sectoral legislation (Drinking Water Directive, Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive). We call for full coherence between the RED, other energy legislation (EED), and sectoral legislation (DW Directive, Urban WW Treatment Directive).

Meeting society’s demand for safe water services may involve energy-intensive processes making energy one of the sector’s highest operational cost factors. Optimising energy use has therefore been a top priority for many years. The sector will step up efforts further with the ambition to reduce its GHG emissions in line with EU objectives.

We support the EU’s Green Deal, including its climate targets and Strategies.

We call for full coherence between the EED, other energy legislation (RED), and sectoral legislation (Drinking Water Directive – DWD, Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive – UWWTD). We support the EU’s Green Deal, including its climate targets and Strategies. We call for full coherence between the EED, other energy legislation (RED), and sectoral legislation (DWD, UWWTD).

Meeting society’s demand for safe water services may involve energy-intensive processes making energy one of the sector’s highest operational cost factors. Optimising its use has therefore been a top priority for many years. Still, the energy efficiency potential is far from exhausted. The sector accepts the need to step up efforts further with the ambition to reduce its GHG emissions in line with EU objectives. However, if an energy-intensive treatment step is technically necessary (safety, regulatory compliance), it must prevail despite higher energy use.

The EU is well aware of the need to reduce the environmental footprint of medicines.

This challenge, plus many more will be addressed in the forthcoming EU Pharmaceutical Strategy, which should cover the whole life-cycle of pharmaceutical products from scientific discovery to authorisation and patient access.

A revised UWWTD will set the context for waste water services for the next generation. Therefore we highlight key points that the impact assessment (IA) must address in our feedback.

A recent analysis by the European Commission through the PESETA project refines the projected impacts of recent analysis by the European Commission through the PESETA project refines the projected impacts of climate change on the Union and beyond, as well as some of the benefits of adaptation measures. This analysis highlights the need for more ambitious action on adaptation. In order to support the development of the new EU Adaptation Strategy, the European Commission is seeking stakeholder views and feedback, in line with the Better Regulation Guidelines, including this open public consultation. Your responses to this questionnaire will be analysed and fed into the policy design process.

We welcome the EU Methane Strategy initiative, which intends to reduce the manmade methane emissions by putting in place an enabling environment to cut these emissions, which contribute to climate change.

The European Green Deal sets out how to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind. Water needs to be an integral part of this.