OpenLobby.EU
Explore

French association of industries and companies in the water and environment sectors

UIE

The key missions of UIE are the following: (i) Promote the water sector overall and through each of the relevant specialist areas and companies, in France, the European Union and the rest of the world. (ii) Contribute to the drafting of texts governing the activities of companies working in this specialty sector in France and the European Union. To this end, the UIE technical commission works with the services of the relevant governmental departments, with local authorities and all public and private bodies involved in the treatment, distribution and use of drinking water, the treatment of wastewater, the treatment of solid waste, and protection from pollution. (iii) Communication: L’Eau magazine and Water mag, are read by decision-makers and stakeholders in the water sector; over 30,000 readers in France and abroad. UIE publishes these two bi-annual magazines specialised in the water sector. They cover policy, regulations, research, innovation, design, as well as the (...)

Lobbying Activity

Response to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive (RECAST 2017)

30 Mar 2018

The French association of industries and companies in the water and environment sectors (UIE) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to review and revise the Drinking Water Directive. Nevertheless, some points have caught our attention. Parameter List: We are concerned about the approach regarding perfluorinated compounds. Indeed, there should be a precise list describing which per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are concerned by the parametric values. The text is too vague as it is and the parametric value for total PFASs could be difficult to respect if too many families of PFASs were to be included. In addition, we recommend a transition period for the parametric values to be applied. Indeed, we have currently insufficient hindsight regarding the elimination of some PFASs families by treatment processes. We are surprised to see that total organic carbon (COT) has been completely deleted from indicator parameters and from the list of parameters to be provided online for the information to the public, and that there is no reference to calco-organic equilibrium in the text.
Read full response

Response to Evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC (UWWTD)

7 Nov 2017

The French union of industries and companies in the water and environment sectors (UIE) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to evaluate the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). We are willing to cooperate and to take part in future consultation activities and expert meetings. We share the will of the Commission to assess the five criteria mentioned (effectiveness, coherence, efficiency, relevance and EU-value) and we agree with the methodology proposed. It seems essential to us that the Directive has to take into account the challenge represented by climate change. Particular attention should be given to run-off rain water as rainy events are less frequent but more intense and are likely to cause malfunctions of the wastewater treatments plants (which is an issue for aquatic environments). The Directive has also to work towards the achievement of a circular economy in the EU by facilitating the development of subjects like water re-use or energy neutrality (made possible with biogas production). We also believe that emerging pollutants should be better covered by the Directive while micropollutants in aquatic environments are a growing concern.
Read full response

Response to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive

28 Mar 2017

The French association of industries and companies in the water and environment sectors (UIE) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to review and revise the Drinking Water Directive. We are willing to cooperate and to take part in future consultation activities. We share the will of the Commission – as expressed in the roadmap - to propose EU harmonized standards for materials and products in contact with drinking water. Regarding micropollutants, if possible supported by toxicological study, a list of substances identified as toxics and commonly encountered in raw water used for the production of drinking water should be established. Maximum concentrations should also be determined for those substances. In order to respect the maximum concentrations, if necessary, all plants should have to comply with a pre-defined schedule, with extended delays for small and middle-sized drinking water treatment plants. We believe that a detailed regulation concerning disinfection by-products should be established. For some important parameters, the list should be updated and some limit values should be lowered. See below some examples: Turbidity: 0,5 NTU The oxydisability should be replaced by TOC Chloride, sulphate, iron, manganese… A regulation on perchlorates seems necessary to us, but only if limited to the areas concerned with this issue.
Read full response