Member State experts have not been idle thus far trying to agree on the 28 May proposal for a regulation to encourage the reuse of urban waste water for agricultural irrigation, but for any hoped for progress, the dossier will have to be taken to Ministerial level on 5 March.
This dossier should therefore be included on the agenda of the meeting of European Environment Ministers for a policy debate, as requested by the Romanian Presidency of the Council. The ambassadors of the Twenty-Eight (Coreper) are expected to approve the agenda for this session on Friday 22 February.
Out of the four meetings held in the Council's Environment Working Party, the Presidency identified two main issues to be decided at political level: the degree of flexibility that this legislation should offer Member States and the degree of severity of the minimum safety standards required for the quality of recycled water.
Indeed, while recognising that water scarcity is an important issue to be resolved, Member States have divergent approaches.
Those who already use urban waste water for irrigation advocate legislation that takes into account national differences, as they fear that the regulation will force them to make significant changes to their national systems. Other countries, for which water scarcity is not an immediate problem, would like to have an opt-out possibility to avoid an unnecessary bureaucratic burden arising from the future regulation, even though they do not foresee, in the short term, using waste water for irrigation purposes in agriculture.
Delegations also want to see a clear definition of the responsibilities of the different actors in the water treatment process, taking into account the need to ensure a high level of safety of agricultural products irrigated with recycled water to protect human health and the environment, but also the need to avoid excessive costs.
The European Parliament already gave its opinion on this proposal for a Regulation on 12 February (see EUROPE 12193, 12192). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)