Description
Despite some improvements, water pollution remains a key environmental and sanitary challenge across the EU. More than twenty years after the adoption of the Water Framework Directive, less than 40% of Europe’s rivers, lakes, and coastal and transitional waters and around 70% of groundwater bodies hold good chemical status. Yet, that does not give the full picture of the state of our waters as chemical status is only assessed against a small subset of substances and largely does not take into account the effects of chemical mixtures.
On 26 October 2022, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Directive amending the Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC), the Groundwater Directive (GWD 2006/118/EC) and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (EQSD 2008/105/EC). This proposal updates the lists of priority substances for surface and groundwater and their associated legal threshold values.
As the European Parliament and the Council are preparing their positions on this proposal, this event gathers key actors to share their expertise and views on the topic of aquatic toxicity, the importance of the polluter pays principle and the value of implementing coherent rules around water monitoring.
Agenda
Moderator: Sara Johansson, the European Environmental Bureau
15.00 Introduction and opening remarks
15.10 – 16.30
16.30 – 16.35
16.35 – 16.50
16.50 – 16.55 MEP Milan Brglez, S&D – Closing remarks
17.00 Closing
This event is hosted by MEP Milan Brglez, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, and Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI)