Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) will vote on Wednesday 20 September on the proposed recast of Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste-water treatment, a text submitted by the European Commission in October 2022 to combine the objective of cleaner water by 2030 with energy savings at treatment plants (see EUROPE 13051/2).
The draft report by Nils Torvalds (Renew Europe, Finnish) welcomes the modernisation of a thirty-year-old directive, which will make it possible to tackle growing pollution, but expresses concerns about the system of extended responsibility for producers of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products (application of the polluter pays principle), believing that the whole of society should contribute to the cost of treating this pollution.
On the whole, the 37 compromise amendments support the proposal by providing greater flexibility, particularly in the timetables, and by taking account of seasonal variations and clarifications concerning energy neutrality.
Secondary treatment (article 6). A EPP/S&D/Renew Europe compromise provides, for example, that discharges of urban waste water into waters located in cold climate regions, where it is difficult to apply effective biological treatment due to low temperatures, may be subject to less stringent treatment; however, the treatment would have to achieve a minimum reduction percentage of 40%, measured at least once a week, and Member States making use of this derogation would have to notify the Commission.
Nitrogen and tertiary treatment (article 7). Mr Torvalds believes that Member States should be able to grant a derogation to wastewater treatment plants that fail to meet their nitrogen reduction targets on days when temperatures are below 12°C.
Compromise amendments from the EPP and ECR groups postpone the application timetable by 3 years, in line with the concerns expressed by Member States in March (see EUROPE 13144/4).
The draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/8n4 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)