24 May, 15:00-17:00 CET

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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

• MEP Milan Brglez, S&D

15.10 – 16.30

• Caroline Whalley, European Environment Agency –  State of Europe’s waters: what do we know and what information is missing
• Alexandra Kroll, Oekotoxzentrum Eawag – Water quality and ecological risks of water pollution and chemical mixtures
• Koldo Hernández Lozano, Ecologistas en Acción – The necessity of coherence in monitoring practices 
• Wolfgang Deinlein, ERM Coalition of European Drinking Water Suppliers – The European River and Groundwater Memorandums (ERM, EGM), how important is the Polluter Pays Principle?
• Lucille Labayle,Surfrider/ Manon Rouby, PAN Europe – Views of civil society, the right to a healthy environment

16.30 – 16.35

• Rolf-Jan Hoeve, DG ENVI European Commission – Reaction to the interventions

16.35 – 16.50

• Q&A and discussion

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)

Where: European Parliament