The European Parliament and the Council have negotiated a provisional agreement on a directive on urban waste water management from autumn 2023 until this spring. On 5 November, the member states adopted it at the ECOFIN meeting (Economic and Financial Affairs Council ), and the legal text has now been published in the EU's Official Journal (OJ). Directive 2024/3019 enters into force on 1 January 2025.
The directive replaces the current one, which was initially adopted in 1991. The directive is part of the EU's Zero-Pollution Action Plan .
The text of the law identifies the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors as solely responsible for the pollution and these sectors are supposed to finance, possibly together with the users of municipal water, the expansion and annual maintenance of the treatment plants via Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The share that the users, the taxpayers, are expected to contribute will probably be a smaller share of the “pie”. However, the text of the law states “ at least 80% of the total costs of meeting the requirements, including the investments and operating costs of quaternary wastewater treatment to remove micropollutants originating from the products they place on the market”.
Key dates in the implementation of the directive
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Member States shall take measures to ensure that producers have extended producer responsibility by 31 December 2028.
- Criteria for exempting EPR (if it can be demonstrated that the substances used are biodegradable according to criteria): The EU Commission must adopt criteria (through so-called implementing acts) by 31 December 2027.
- However, Member States shall exempt producers from EPR if they can demonstrate that the amount of substances (micropollutants) contained in the products they release is less than 1 tonne per year.
- Implementation in national legislation: Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Articles 2-11 and 14-26 and Annexes I, III (medicinal products and cosmetic products), V and VI by 31 July 2027.
We are currently unable to act within the UWWTD because, as mentioned above, the EPR system has not yet been established, but also because there is no absolutely clear definition of micropollutants, whose burden on water treatment is central to the idea of EPR. Furthermore, there are no criteria for exemption from being covered by EPR.
Cosmetics Europe has been invited to a first meeting of the EU Commission's UWWTD expert group on 28 January 2025.
Explanations, definitions
Micropollutant (according to the legal text): a substance as defined in Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, including its degradation products, which is normally present in the aquatic environment, in waste water or in sludge and which, even at low concentrations, may be considered dangerous to the environment or human health on the basis of the relevant criteria set out in Parts 3 and 4 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 .
However, this chosen definition is not clearly formulated as it can include all levels of hazard and also non-harmonised hazard classifications as well as both current hazard classes and future ones. The EU Commission is aware of this and, as mentioned above, will develop exemption criteria. The cosmetics sector and several Member States believe that it must be clarified via a list (e.g. annex to the directive) which substances are, or are not, micropollutants, for legally secure handling. Cosmetics Europe is discussing proposing a so-called positive list (ARE micropollutants).