Lobbying by European Water Association

European Water Association

EWA

The European Water Association is an independent non-governmental and non-profit making organisation promoting the sustainable and improved management of the total water cycle and hence the environment as a whole.

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ID: 121848610166-52

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Pernille Weiss-Ehler (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall)

27 Jan 2026 · Water Resilience Strategy and the Water Academy

Response to Circular Economy Act

6 Nov 2025

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Meeting with Pernille Weiss-Ehler (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall)

10 Jun 2025 · Water Resilience Strategy

Meeting with Mirka Janda (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto) and Water Europe and

15 Apr 2025 · Water sector

Meeting with Jessika Roswall (Commissioner) and

27 Mar 2025 · Roundtable “Water, Agriculture, and the Food Supply Chain”

Response to European Water Resilience Strategy

28 Feb 2025

The European Water Association (EWA) is an independent non-profit NGO dealing with the management and improvement of the water environment. As one of the major professional associations in Europe, its cover the whole water sector, wastewater as well as drinking water and water related waste. EWA aims to contribute to sustainable water management, a safe water supply, and the protection of the water and environment. EWA welcomes the opportunity to provide information on the Water Resilience Strategy & Water Efficiency First guiding principles consultations from the Commission. EWA has been calling for the recognition of the Strategic Value of Water for years. There is a need for a better and more integrated water management approach to protect human health, the environment, meet the requirements of the public and ensure economic development and competitiveness in Europe. Regarding the Water Resilience Strategy, EWA insists that water must be a top priority for the European Union. Water plays a critical role for human health, biodiversity, and for the EU strategic autonomy. It is a major resource needed in all economic sectors. It will also play a crucial role in the development of key European strategic sectors such as microchips for semiconductors, batteries, data canters and hydrogen projects to name a few. All these sectors depend on a reliable water supply as well as good water quality. However, these sectors can also affect negatively water quality (for example by relishing pollutants directing into the environment) and water availability (for example in drought periods if water access is not monitored). Climate change, of course, plays a role on water availability as well with the increase frequency of extreme events (droughts, floodings, heat waves) all affection Human life and human activities. Adapting water infrastructure to the challenges of climate change is nowadays a continuous struggle. In addition to the classic tasks of water infrastructure dealing with drinking water production, distribution, wastewater collection and disposal, it will increasingly have to consider of rainfall or periods of dryness and drought. At the same time, sustainable water management also mitigates climate change itself by protecting ecosystems and reducing carbon emissions from water and sanitation transportation and treatment. To support this adaptation, funds should be made available for the water sector to invest in better infrastructure, with a better energy consumption for example, as well as maintain the existing one. Adoption of digital technologies and data-driven innovation by the water sector at large should also be fostered. And capacity building, such as lifelong learning, for the local workforce should be prioritised at the European level. EWA believes that there is a need for a better and more integrated water management approach to protect human health and the environment, meet the requirements of the public and ensure economic development and competitiveness in Europe. A need for a more integrated cooperation among economic sectors and actors at basin levels is present in Europe. As answer during a water scarcity event favouriting a sector instead of the other should not be a solution and could have unexpected consequences that could be worse than the water scarcity itself. To avoid this, a long vision is needed for the water sector as well as the entire society. This vision should focus on the provision of water services and be moving in the direction of good quality water resources, balancing water demand with availability and equitable sharing of the resources. EWA - Clean Water for Europe: Quality, Safety, and Sustainability for All.

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Meeting with Virginijus Sinkevičius (Commissioner) and

4 Jul 2023 · To discuss Commission’s legislative proposals currently in co-decision (on Integrated Water Management, revised Urban Wastewater Treatment and Industrial Emissions Directives) and international water related initiatives.

Meeting with Ivo Belet (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica), Marco La Marca (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica) and Water Europe

30 Jun 2023 · Exchange of views on a European Water Strategy.

Response to Revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

14 Mar 2023

The European Water Association (EWA) welcomes and supports the considered revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) and the pursued objective of making sure that urban wastewater is clean and safe. EWA is an independent non-governmental and non-profit making organization dealing with the management and improvement of the water environment. We are one of the major professional associations in Europe that covers the whole water sector, wastewater as well as drinking water and water related waste. The aim of EWA is to provide a forum for the discussion of key technical and policy issues in Europe and its regions. This is done through conferences, workshops, meetings, special working groups of experts and through publications and web-based media. The objective of EWA is e.g. through this exchange of knowledge, to contribute to sustainable water management, a safe water supply and the protection of the water and soil environment. This proposal was positively received by our members. It is also raising a couple of questions that would need clarification. Some of them are: It is important to us that the newly created Extended producer responsibility principle stays in the final version of the text and its scope could even be extended to more sectors. EWA also welcomes the Annex 3 LIST OF PRODUCTS COVERED BY EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY but believes that it could already include PFAS, pesticide and biocide explicitly and to avoid any potential gap is the current texts articulation covering these products. Moreover, EWA considers the addition of an exemption clause for manufacturers whose products are put on the market in quantities of less than two tonnes per year to be "premature". EWA fears a "very limited implementation of EPR and a lack of application of the polluter-pays principle, particularly in countries with small populations". The Energy neutrality of urban wastewater treatment plants goal is going into the right direction for the water sector and would need some clarification. Removing micropollutants and improving energy efficiency at the same time presents a challenge for the water industry and will require innovative approaches. It may be particularly difficult to attain if the energy efficiency requirements apply to each individual plantIt is so far unclear if the goal must be meet with a new energy production only developed directly inside the wastewater treatment plants or if it would be possible for the operators to buy green energy on a regional or national level. It might be impossible for each wastewater plant to produce its own renewable energy due to local technical restriction, size and location of the plant The EWA would like to raise awareness on these issues and is expecting clarification in the future. The mention of run-off and discharge from combined sewer overflows is going into the right direction and it needs more definition to reassure the actors involved and to ensure its effective and easy implementation in relation with receiving surface water. As previously mentioned the EWA welcomes and support the proposal that is going into the right direction for the Water Sector but some questions and need for clarification remain. Some of them will come later at a National Level but the EWA believes that the proposal could already be more precise, contain some of these answers, and that it would ensure a better implementation, more harmonized practices, in all the Members States. EWA Clean water for Europe & Worldwide

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Response to Bathing water quality – review of EU rules

30 Mar 2021

The EWA supports the following recommendations from the WHO: - Protect bathing water quality by maintaining and ensuring bathing water testing methods for E. coli and intestinal enterococci are up to date and appropriate for use o The ISO method (9308-1) for E. coli analysis is no longer recommended. As of its 2014 revision, it is suitable for waters with low bacterial numbers and, as such not applicable to bathing waters. Therefore, it should be replaced by ISO method 9308-2 o Remove ISO 7899-2 as a recommended method for testing enterococci in coastal waters. The 2018 WHO Report clarifies that the ISO 7899-2 method “is best suited to drinking-water, water from swimming pools or other disinfected/clean water sources“. - Maintain the four levels within the current classification system (excellent, good, sufficient and poor) and use the 95-percentile value for each category of the classification system instead of a mixture of 95- and 90-percentile water quality standards. - Increase the annual minimum number of samples from four to twenty to reduce the risk of misclassifications of bathing water generating either adverse health effects or unnecessary economic costs for the location. Evidence has been presented suggesting that 1 in 12 bathers exposed to bathing water complying with the requirements to enterococci in the “sufficient quality“ category may develop gastrointestinal disease. The Commission should therefore carry out a thorough review of the level of protection provided by the current quality standards in order to assess whether the standards satisfy the requirement of a high level of protection as set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In addition, it is important for EWA to maintain a coherent approach concerning other EU water policies. - Encourage the use of updated standards and/or alternative methods for culture enumeration which can generate results in shorter time periods o Replace „CFU per volume“ with „Number per volume“ as adopted in Annex 1 Part A of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 - Ensure simplified procedures for updating methods of analysis, e.g. by authorising implementing or delegated acts. Monitoring requirements and related costs to Member States would certainly be less of a burden if multiple validated tools were available (test methods and kits). For this reason, it is important to set a common EU assessment procedure for validation of alternative methods. Likewise, it is prudent to ensure that only appropriate monitoring tools are being used by including a requirement to reconsider the status of accepted alternative methods when the reference method (or principle) relative to which they demonstrated equivalence is withdrawn from the Directive. The EWA recognises that the discussion of the feasibility of possible additional parameters has led to a conclusion that currently available evidence would not support inclusion of a viral indicator or pathogen as a regulatory parameter. It is important, nonetheless to promote research and innovation in order to prepare for the future by considering emerging threats to Bathing Water quality. EWA calls on the Commission to clarify that it will carry out a risk analysis and to review the virus parameter, including covid-19, and, if appropriate, make a proposal in this respect. The current system (i.e. consideration as part of the bathing water profile) for marine phytoplankton should be retained. However, the locations at risk of freshwater cyanobacterial blooms should be subject to a new classification system. This should be based on guidance levels currently under development by the World Health Organization and should allow Member States to choose which parameters to monitor (biovolume, chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin, transparency, toxin concentration) while taking into consideration European frameworks. This is an excerpt. For more please find attached Position Paper.

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Meeting with Mathieu Fichter (Cabinet of Commissioner Corina Crețu) and Water Europe

16 Jun 2015 · Cohesion Policy support to water management

Meeting with Shane Sutherland (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan), Shane Sutherland (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)

19 Mar 2015 · Water management