Brussels, 02/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Updating of the list of products that could negatively affect surface water quality in the EU has been cleared. Said substances will need monitoring and their presence in water reduced because, on 2 July, the European Parliament (EP) endorsed an agreement reached in three-way talks on updating the list of harmful products appended to the EU Water Directive (2000/60/EC) by a wide majority (646 to 51, with 14 abstentions).
The agreement reached with the Council of Ministers on first reading will add a dozen substances to the list and, for the first time, require three pharmaceutical products (17-alphaethinylestradiol, 17-beta-estradiol and diclofenac) to be monitored as part of a strategy to be drawn up within two years. In November 2012, MEPs demanded that these three pharmaceutical products be added to the list of priority substances (a request unacceptable to the Council of Ministers) and for a vigilance list of 25 other substances likely to damage the quality of surface water to be drawn up (see EUROPE 10742).
The draft agreement recognises the dangers posed by these substances for water and aquatic ecosystem and calls on the European Commission to draw up a risk strategy for the aquatic environment of pharmaceuticals.
The draft legislation says that the emissions into water of eight substances (two of which are on the current list of priority substances) should be removed from water in the EU over the next 20 years. It lays down stricter environmental quality standards. For substances newly identified as an emerging threat, the maximum concentration in water will apply from 2018 with a view to establishing a good chemical environment for surface water by 2028. To this end, the member states need to submit to the Commission additional programmes of measures and monitoring by 2018. The revised environmental quality standards for existing priority substances must be included in water basin management plans in 2015 so that good water quality, chemically speaking, can be achieved for surface water in 2021.
The new rules amend the framework directive on water and Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental standards for water. (AN/transl.fl)