On Friday 1 March, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (‘Coreper’) approved the interinstitutional agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on 29 January on the modernisation of the 30-year-old Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.
During the second round of inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogue’), the European Parliament and the Council of the EU agreed, among other things, to extend the obligation, by 2035, to set up urban wastewater collection systems to all agglomerations of at least 1,000 population equivalents (p.e) - compared with 2,000 at present - although exemptions are provided for in certain cases, notably for small agglomerations discharging into coastal waters or less sensitive areas.
By the same deadline and for agglomerations of 1,000 p.e., Member States will also have to apply secondary treatment (elimination of biodegradable organic matter) to urban wastewater before it is discharged into the environment. Nitrogen and phosphorus elimination (‘tertiary treatment’) will have to be implemented by 2039 for plants covering a catchment area of at least 150,000 p.e. in 2039 and at least 10,000 p.e. in 2045.
Other measures are also included in the text for monitoring pollutants, applying the ‘polluter pays’ principle for producers, and the reuse of treated waste water. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)