EurEau newsletter - May 2025
EurEau News
EurEau@50: Waterproofing our Future
150 of EurEau’s members and stakeholders met in Brussels on Thursday 22 May to mark 50 years of protecting consumers through delivering safe water services.
The conference concluded that we need to be very clear on our goals and how we want our water services to be in the future. We also need to work closely with nature and other allies.
Read about the Water Tasting Journey here.
Read about the conference here.
Watch our 50th anniversary film .
EurEau elects!
Pär Dalhielm was re-elected as EurEau President at the General Assembly meeting in Brussels on Friday 23 May. He is the CEO of Svenskt Vatten, the Swedish national organisation for drinking water and wastewater services.
EurEau General Assembly members also elected new Committee Chairs and executive board.
The full result of the EurEau elections are:
- Pär Dalhielm (Svenskt Vatten, Sweden): President
- Gesche Grützmacher (DVGW, Germany) and Nikoletta Xanthopoulou (EYATH, Greece): co-Chairs of the EurEau Committee on Drinking Water
- John Casey (Uisce Eireann, Ireland) and Paula Lindell (FIWA, Finland): co-Chairs of the EurEau Committee on Waste Water
- Erik Karlsson (Svenskt Vatten, Sweden) and Brian Murphy (Uisce Éireann, Ireland): co-Chairs of the EurEau Committee on Economics and Legal Affairs.
The full Executive Committee will be composed of the Committee Chairpeople plus Mariano Blanco Orozco (AEAS, Spain), Denis Bonvillain (FP2E, France), Stuart Colville (Water UK), Sandis Dejus (Latvian Water and Wastewater Works Association), Luigi del Giacco (Utilitalia, Italy), Brian Murphy (Uisce Éireann, Ireland) and Klara Ramm, (IGWP, Poland). Alain Gillis (Belgaqua, Belgium) remains as treasurer.
Swiss member VSA welcome EurEau delegation on quaternary treatment
On 13 May, representatives from eight EurEau member associations visited two Swiss wastewater treatment plants equipped with quaternary treatment. Experts from the two plants shared their experience with the technological solutions they apply. We thank our Swiss colleagues from VSA for their hospitality.
Speaking out
Oliver Loebel, EurEau Secretary General, sent a video presentation to our Icelandic member Samorka on the occasion of their annual conference on 22 May 2025.
Sébastien Mouret, EurEau Policy Advisor, led a roundtable on the Industrial Emissions Directive at the Global Water Summit in Paris on 13 May. Sébastien also contributed to a panel discussion on water resilience on 15 May, as part of the European Association for the Taps and Valves Industry (CEIR) annual congress in Brussels.
On 6 and 7 May, Martin Silič, EurEau Policy Advisor, contributed to a workshop held in Athens, on tyre wear particles pollution, organised under the Horizon Europe SOS-ZEROPOL2030 project.
On 29 May, Gari Villa-Landa, EurEau Policy Advisor, will participate in the Baltic Water Works Conference with a presentation on the opportunities and challenges of energy neutrality for the urban wastewater sector.
EU news
Legislative developments
Water Resilience Strategy: EP approves recommendations
The European Parliament endorsed (07.05.25) its own-initiative report on the European Union’s Water Resilience Strategy to be presented by the European Commission on 4 June 2025.
EurEau welcomes this report and its many positive elements. It’s not all good news however. The final vote highlighted the divisions in the Parliament regarding a prompt and far-reaching PFAS ban. The amendment approved in the plenary shows a slightly strengthened ambition level in favour of protecting people’s health. Read more…
Leaked Water Resilience Strategy: Many positive elements but shifting PFAS burden to water service providers
In more WRS news, the Water Resilience Strategy due to be presented on 4 June is likely to contain many positive elements, according to a leaked version. The document rightly prioritises nature-based solutions and calls for a whole-society approach towards increased water efficiency. On the other hand, the Commission wants to shift the burden of ubiquitous PFAS pollution to the water services sector by favouring ‘clean-up’ measures. You can read our full reaction here.
Water legislation
Safeguarding Europe’s Water Future: Defending the EPR Scheme in the Recast UWWTD
EurEau co-signed letter calling on the Commission to protect EPR schemes in the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). A key innovation of the recast UWWTD is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. This mechanism rightly places the financial responsibility for tackling micropollutant pollution on the industries responsible. However, recent discussions have raised concerns that this vital provision may be weakened through potential revisions or future simplification packages. Such a move would not only delay the rollout of necessary treatment technologies but also risk shifting the financial burden onto already-stretched public services and water users.
You can read the letter here and our full reaction here.
Water and agriculture
Soil Monitoring Law: Council approves compromise text
The trilogue agreement on the Soil Monitoring Law was endorsed by EU Member States on 21 May, paving the way for its adoption. The text will be subject to a vote in the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee on 4 June before MEPs give their final approval in Plenary, likely after the summer break.
The text sets the scene for the monitoring of soil health across the EU but stops far short of concrete commitments to improve European soils.
We welcome the creation of a watch list of soil pollutants, including PFAS and some pesticides, but regret that this will remain only indicative.
CAP: Omnibus package weakens water resource protection
The European Commission published another to ‘simplify’ the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
EurEau is wary that a number of measures will lead to detrimental effects on the protection of drinking water resources and, thus, go against the spirit of the forthcoming Water Resilience Strategy. They include the weakening of the protection of grasslands (GAEC 1) and peatlands and wetlands (GAEC 2), as well as the removal of links between the CAP and new environmental and climate legislation.
Water and the environment
PFAS in fire-fighting foams: Phase out inches closer
EU Member States decided to phase out PFAS in firefighting foam following a Commission proposal which itself was based on an ECHA restriction proposal.
EurEau welcomes this move, as fire-fighting foams are a major source of local groundwater contamination across the continent leading also to the pollution of drinking water resources. Given the sheer extent of the environmental pollution, EurEau had called for shorter transition periods.
The Commission is expected to formally adopt this proposal in the second half of this year, provided the co-legislators to not raise objections during the scrutiny period.
PFAS: Proposal to re-classify TFA as toxic for reproduction
The European Chemicals Agency ECHA published on the reclassification of Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and its inorganic salts. They suggest TFA should be classified as toxic for reproduction (Repro 1B) as well as very persistent and very mobile (PMT/vPvP). ECHA has 18 months to transmit its conclusions to the European Commission.
While current human exposure to this substance is far below risk levels, EurEau sees this proposal as another strong argument to phase out all PFAS and in particular those that release TFA at some stage in the life cycle.
Major TFA sources include fluorinated gases and pesticides. Quickly rising pollution levels lead to a wide range of food products and drinking water resources being contaminated.
Water as an essential service
Next Multiannual Financial Framework: EurEau feedback to public consultation
EurEau responded to the public consultation on the next MFF covering two areas of EU expenditures – cohesion and security/preparedness. Given the escalating pressures on water resources, aggravated by the combined impacts of climate change, pollution, rising demand, and security threats and while acknowledging the expanding financial gap for ensuring compliance with the (updated) sectoral EU acquis, funding for water needs to be commensurately ramped up and appropriately tailored under the next MFF in order to ensure the Member States are able to effectively absorb it.
Green Data for All: EurEau feedback to public consultation
EurEau responded to the public consultation on the Green Data for All initiative that covers an impact assessment on increasing the availability of environmentally relevant spatial data (including on the INSPIRE Directive). While EurEau supports the efforts to increase public access to geospatial environmental data, the EU legislation must ensure the protection of critical infrastructure/essential services, like water operators, to prevent malicious acts and protect people’s health and the environment. This should also apply to the future revision of the INSPIRE Directive, which, in its current Article 13, allows for the exclusion of utility facilities, such as sewage and water supply, from its scope.
Events
24-28 August 2025 – SIWI , Stockholm
23-25 September 2025 - , Oslo
7-8 October 2025 - - Achieving Zero Pollution of Persistent and Mobile Substances: Removal through Technical Solutions, Lesvos, Greece More details at .
5-6 November 2025 - WWT’s Drinking Water Quality Europe Conference.
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