Our Publications

Customers and citizens need a much greater understanding of the value of water, including water pricing policies and the governance of water services, namely which players are involved, who takes the decisions on how water services are managed and who is responsible for what. Achieving this will help ensure access to safe and sustainable water today and tomorrow.

Clean water is a prerequisite for ensuring environmental and public health and prosperity. To achieve this we need better EU policy coordination.

Water and agriculture are essential for life. However, agriculture increasingly affects the quantity and the quality of drinking water resources. EurEau insists on the proper implementation EU legislation so as to protect health and the environment.

An insight into our successes, and challenges facing the European water sector

An overview of our work in 2016.

Decreasing water consumption is an economic challenge for water and waste water operators, since most of their costs are fixed but their income is closely linked to consumption. Given that 60-80% of the costs are fixed, measures should guarantee that all fixed costs are recovered, for example by a better tariff structure.

The Fertiliser Regulation opens the door to using recovered phosphorus from sewage sludge in fertiliser products. Including treated input materials from waste water treatment plants as a component in fertilisers promotes recycling and is better for the environment.

Glyphosate is routinely found in raw water resources across Europe. We support measures taken to control the concentrations of this chemical in surface waters and in urban run-off. It is vital that consumers across Europe have access to safe drinking water. We need access to clean water resources that are free from contaminants such as microplastics and micropollutants. This protects the environment, and consumers from additional costs.

This briefing summarises different EurEau position papers on cost recovery for water services, water charges, investment capacity and affordability mechanisms. Furthermore the current relevance of the tariff setting is described. The original EurEau papers are referenced in Annex I.