Considerations on COM(2022)541 - Urban wastewater treatment (recast)

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dossier COM(2022)541 - Urban wastewater treatment (recast).
document COM(2022)541 EN
date November 27, 2024
 
table>(1)Council Directive 91/271/EEC (4) has been substantially amended several times (5). Since further amendments are to be made, that Directive should be recast in the interests of clarity.
(2)Water is a primary good which belongs to everyone and is for everyone. As a natural resource which is essential, irreplaceable and indispensable to life, it needs to be considered and integrated in its three dimensions: social, economic and environmental.

(3)Directive 91/271/EEC sets the legal framework for the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater and the discharge of biodegradable wastewater from certain industrial sectors. Urban wastewater can be formed by different mixtures of domestic wastewater, urban runoff and non-domestic wastewater from other origins. Wastewater from institutions such as offices, schools, kitchens with food preparation which originates predominantly from the human metabolism qualifies as domestic wastewater. The objective of Directive 91/271/EEC is to protect the environment from being adversely affected by insufficiently treated urban wastewater discharges. It has contributed to achieving the objectives established under Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) and other relevant Union law. This Directive should continue to pursue the same objective while also contributing to the protection of public health in accordance with the One Health approach, which is aimed at sustainably balancing and optimising the health of people, animals and ecosystems, when for instance urban wastewater is discharged into bathing waters or into water bodies used for the abstraction of drinking water, or when urban wastewater is used as an indicator for parameters relevant for public health. It should also ensure access to sanitation and to key information related to the governance of urban wastewater collection and treatment activities. This Directive should also aim at increasing synergies with climate change adaptation and actions to restore urban ecosystems in particular through integrated urban wastewater management planning, while making optimal use of digitalisation. Finally, this Directive should contribute to the progressive reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from urban wastewater collection and treatment activities, in particular by further reducing nitrogen emissions but also by promoting energy efficiency and production of renewable energies, and thus should contribute to the 2050 objective of Climate Neutrality established under Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7). In line with Article 193 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Member States can go beyond the minimum requirements set out in this Directive. Member States could consider for instance applying deadlines or thresholds more stringent than those included in this Directive, reaching energy or climate neutrality more rapidly or imposing additional requirements for, or broadening the spectrum of the application of, their national extended producer responsibility systems.

(4)In 2019, the Commission performed an evaluation of Directive 91/271/EEC under the Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (the ‘evaluation’). It became apparent from that exercise that certain provisions of that Directive needed to be updated. Three important sources of pollution not fully addressed under that Directive from urban wastewater that could be avoided were identified, namely storm water overflows and polluted discharges of urban runoff, potentially malfunctioning individual systems, that is to say systems treating domestic wastewater that does not enter collecting systems, and small agglomerations that are currently not completely covered by Directive 91/271/EEC. Those three sources of pollution put significant pressure on surface water bodies in the Union. Moreover, the report of the evaluation also highlighted the need to improve the transparency and governance of urban wastewater activities, to seize the opportunity offered by the urban wastewater treatment sector to use its potential for renewable energy development and make tangible steps towards energy neutrality as a contribution to climate neutrality, and to harmonise urban wastewater surveillance of health parameters, such as the COVID-19 virus and its variants, as a means of supporting public health action.

(5)According to the 2018 report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) on European waters, small agglomerations put significant pressure on 11 % of the surface water bodies in the Union. To better tackle the pollution from such agglomerations, and to prevent discharges of untreated urban wastewater into the environment, the scope of this Directive should include all agglomerations of 1 000 population equivalent (p.e.) and above.

(6)In order to ensure the effective treatment of urban wastewater before discharge into the environment, all urban wastewater from agglomerations of 1 000 p.e. and above should be collected in collecting systems, unless Member States justify the need for a derogation for the use of individual systems under this Directive. When delineating their agglomerations, Member States should take into account the indicative reference threshold of 10 to 25 p.e. per hectare, above which the population, possibly combined with economic activities, located in a specific area is considered sufficiently concentrated. Where collecting systems are already in place, Member States should ensure that all sources of domestic wastewater are connected to them.

(7)Significant investments will be necessary to implement the new requirements introduced by this Directive. It is therefore necessary to take into account the specific situation of each Member State and, where appropriate, adapt the deadlines for the implementation of certain demanding requirements. For instance, Member States having a large number of small agglomerations concerned by the new requirements of this Directive in terms of collection and treatment of urban wastewater for agglomerations of between 1 000 and 2 000 p.e., should be allowed to extend the deadlines for compliance with those new requirements in their first national implementation programme. This should also be the case for Member States having a large number of facilities, for example above 50 %, that need to be upgraded to tertiary treatment in line with the new requirements of this Directive. Agglomerations of below 2 000 p.e. where collecting systems are already in place and discharging urban wastewater into treatment plants located in a different agglomeration should not be counted in the calculation of percentages for the purposes of the derogations from those deadlines. Moreover, the three Member States that acceded to the Union most recently, namely Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, had to make recent investments to implement the requirements of Directive 91/271/EEC. Furthermore, those Member States are characterised by high amounts of rural areas with a high outflux of population, in addition to an ageing rural population. It is therefore necessary to take into account the specific situation of those Member States by allowing them to extend the deadlines for compliance with those new requirements in their first national implementation programme.

(8)Where archaeologically valuable sites are encountered during infrastructural works, such as the building of collecting systems or urban wastewater treatment plants, such works are often delayed due to the need to perform archaeological studies on the site in accordance with national law. It is therefore appropriate to adapt the implementation deadlines in those specific cases. More specifically, where a Member State establishes that, due to the necessity to preserve cultural heritage, the construction of the required infrastructure is particularly difficult, it should be allowed to adapt the implementation deadlines in specific areas, and update accordingly its national implementation programme. The extensions of the deadlines should be set for each area and kept as short as possible, not exceeding 8 years. Cultural heritage should be understood within the meaning of Article 1 of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

(9)Where it can be demonstrated that the establishment of an urban wastewater collecting system or the connection to a collecting system would produce no benefit for the environment or human health, would not be technically feasible or would involve excessive costs, and only in those cases, Member States should be allowed to use individual systems to collect, store and/or treat urban wastewater, provided that they ensure the same level of protection of the environment and human health as secondary and tertiary treatment. Individual systems can include different types of collection, storage or treatment system, such as nature-based solutions, small-sized treatment systems, or temporary tanks combined with regular evacuation to treatment plants. Member States should also exchange best practices on the use and operation of individual systems.

(10)Member States should establish national, regional or local registers to identify individual systems and temporary storage used on their territory and take all measures necessary to ensure that the design of such systems is adequate, that the systems are properly maintained and that they are subject to a regular compliance control on the basis of a risk-based approach. In particular, Member States should ensure that individual systems used for the collection, storage or treatment of urban wastewater are impervious and leak-proof, and that monitoring and inspection of the systems are carried out at regular and fixed intervals. Taking into account the disproportionate costs for adapting the design of such systems to the new design requirements, those new design requirements should not apply to systems established prior to the entry into force of this Directive. Where individual systems are used to collect and/or treat more than 2 % of the urban wastewater load at national level from agglomerations of 2 000 p.e. and above, Member States should provide the Commission with justifications for the use of individual systems instead of collecting systems, demonstrating compliance of those systems with established standards under this Directive and describing the measures taken to reduce the use of such systems.

(11)As a result of precipitation, such as rain, snow or meltwater, storm water overflows and urban runoff represent a sizeable remaining source of pollution discharged into the environment. Such overflows and runoff are expected to increase due to the combined effects of urbanisation and the progressive change of the rain regime linked with climate change. Urban wastewater management infrastructure is therefore particularly vulnerable to climate change. Solutions to reduce that source of pollution should be defined at local level, taking into account the specific local conditions. They should be based on an integrated quantitative and qualitative water management in urban areas. Therefore, Member States should ensure that integrated urban wastewater management plans are established at local level for all agglomerations of 100 000 p.e. and above as those agglomerations are responsible for a significant share of the pollution emitted. Furthermore, integrated urban wastewater management plans should also be put in place for agglomerations of between 10 000 p.e. and 100 000 p.e. where storm water overflows or urban runoff pose a risk for the environment or public health. In those plans, measures should be set out that aim at limiting the pollution from storm water overflows to no more than 2 % of the annual collected urban wastewater load calculated in dry weather flow conditions calculated on the basis of the pollutants in Tables 1 and 2 in Annex I.

(12)Those plans should include measures to reduce the pollution from storm water overflows and also address the potentially significant pollution coming from separately collected urban runoff, for instance the pollution resulting from first rains after long dry periods in densely populated areas. Those plans should also include measures to prevent pollution at source and favour nature-based solutions over those that would require the establishment of grey infrastructure. Those measures could include preventive temporary measures aimed at avoiding the entry of unpolluted rain waters into collecting systems or temporary storage, including natural water retention, and appropriate treatment of heavily loaded runoff or overflows resulting from first rains. Member States are encouraged to increase green and blue spaces in urban areas and to take into account the Urban Nature platform, which provides guidance and knowledge to support towns and cities. In order to ensure adequate coverage of the integrated urban wastewater management plans and a comprehensive solution to storm water problems, those plans should be established for drainage areas of the agglomerations concerned.

(13)In order to ensure that the integrated urban wastewater management plans are cost-effective, it is important that they be based on best practices that have already been applied in urban areas. Therefore, the measures to be considered should be based on a thorough analysis of the local conditions and should favour a preventive approach aimed at limiting the collection of unpolluted rain waters and optimising the use of existing infrastructure to generate energy savings and contribute to emission reduction. With a preference for green and blue developments and investments, new grey infrastructure should be envisaged only where absolutely necessary.

(14)In order to protect the environment, in particular the coastal and marine environment, including the protection of surface, ground and drinking water, and public health from being adversely affected by the discharge of insufficiently treated urban wastewater, secondary treatment should be applied to all discharges of urban wastewater from agglomerations of 1 000 p.e. and above. Due to the expansion of the scope of this Directive to include smaller agglomerations, Member States should be given sufficient time to establish the required infrastructure to meet the obligations set out in this Directive. Similarly, enough time should be given to Member States to adapt their treatment infrastructure for agglomerations discharging their urban wastewater into coastal waters or less sensitive areas where secondary treatment was not required under Directive 91/271/EEC.

(15)Discharges in high mountain regions, namely regions above an altitude of 1 500 m, and small agglomerations of below 2 000 p.e. in cold climate areas with a quarterly average temperature of below 6 oC in the inlet, in which it is difficult to apply an effective biological treatment because of low temperatures, should be allowed to use treatment less stringent than secondary treatment, provided that detailed studies demonstrate that such discharges do not have adverse effects on the environment or human health. Similarly, discharges into deep marine waters from smaller agglomerations of below 150 000 p.e. located in less-populated outermost regions, with fewer than 275 000 inhabitants characterised by difficult topography, such as steep slopes, and discharging their urban wastewater into deep marine waters in the open ocean, favouring a high level of dilution of those urban wastewater discharges into the receiving waters, should also be able to benefit from that derogation. Nevertheless, in order to ensure the equal treatment of all Member States and a high level of protection of the environment and human health on the whole territory of the Union, that derogation should be limited to 20 years, which is the time required to progressively upgrade the remaining urban wastewater treatment plants to secondary treatment in those areas where secondary treatment might be more difficult to apply. That derogation should be granted provided that detailed studies demonstrate that such discharges do not have adverse effects on the environment or human health and do not impact the compliance of the receiving waters with other relevant Union law, such as Directive 2000/60/EC, 2006/7/EC (8), or 2008/56/EC (9) of the European Parliament and of the Council.

(16)The evaluation showed that significant reductions of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions were achieved through the implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC. Nevertheless, urban wastewater treatment plants remain, according to the evaluation, an important pathway of those pollutants into the environment, directly leading to eutrophication of water bodies and seas in the Union. Part of this pollution can be avoided as technical progress and best practices in place show that emission limit values established under Directive 91/271/EEC for nitrogen and phosphorus are outdated and should be strengthened, especially for larger treatment plants. Tertiary treatment should be systematically imposed on all urban wastewater treatment plants of 150 000 p.e. and above, as such plants represent an important remaining source of nitrogen and phosphorus discharge.

(17)Tertiary treatment should also be mandatory in agglomerations of 10 000 p.e. and above that are discharging into areas subject to, or at risk of, eutrophication. In order to ensure that efforts to limit eutrophication are coordinated at the level of the relevant basins for the whole catchment zone, and to ensure the consistent designation of sensitive areas across the Union, areas where eutrophication is considered an issue according to currently available data should be listed in this Directive. Additionally, in order to ensure the coherence of relevant Union law, Member States should identify other areas subject to, or at risk of, eutrophication on their territory, and identify whether those areas are nitrogen- or phosphorus-sensitive, or both nitrogen- and phosphorus-sensitive in particular on the basis of data collected under Council Directive 91/676/EEC (10), Directive 2000/60/EC and Directive 2008/56/EC. The reinforcement of the limit values, the more coherent and inclusive identification of the areas sensitive to eutrophication and the obligation to ensure tertiary treatment for all large facilities would, in combination, contribute to limit eutrophication. Since this will require additional investment at national level, Member States should be given sufficient time to establish the required infrastructure.

(18)Recent scientific knowledge underpinning several Commission strategies, as set out in four communications from the Commission, namely that of 16 January 2018 entitled ‘A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’, that of 11 March 2019 entitled ‘European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment’, that of 14 October 2020 entitled ‘Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability – Towards a Toxic-Free Environment’ and that of 12 May 2021 entitled ‘Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All – EU Action Plan: “Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil”’, highlights the need to take action to address the issue of micropollutants, which are now routinely detected in all waters in the Union. Some of those micropollutants are hazardous for public health and the environment even in low concentrations, of micrograms per litre or below. While the primary, secondary and tertiary treatment already remove some micropollutants, an additional treatment, i.e. quaternary treatment, should be introduced in order to ensure that a large spectrum of the remaining micropollutants are removed from urban wastewater. Quaternary treatment should first focus on organic micropollutants, which represent a significant part of the pollution and for which removal technologies have already been designed. The quaternary treatment should be imposed on the basis of the precautionary principle, in combination with a risk-based approach. Therefore, all urban wastewater treatment plants of 150 000 p.e. and above should provide quaternary treatment, as those facilities represent a significant share of micropollutant discharges in the environment and the removal of micropollutants by urban wastewater treatment plants at such scale is cost-effective. For treatment plants of 150 000 p.e. and above, Member States should ensure the prioritisation of the required investments so that the facilities where the risks for the environment and human health are the highest are equipped without delay. For agglomerations of 10 000 p.e. and above, Member States should be required to apply quaternary treatment in areas identified as sensitive to pollution with micropollutants on the basis of clear criteria, which should be specified. Such areas should include locations where the discharge of treated urban wastewater to water bodies results in low dilution ratios, or where the receiving water bodies are used for the production of drinking water, for shellfish production or as bathing waters. Member States should be able not to apply quaternary treatment in those areas when a risk assessment shows that there is no potential danger from micropollutants to the environment or to human health. For all other types of water bodies in agglomerations of 10 000 p.e. and above, Member States should assess the risks that the discharge of micropollutants in urban wastewater poses for the environment or to public health on the basis of a standardised risk assessment and apply quaternary treatment only where needed according to the results of the risk assessment. Where there are several urban wastewater treatment plants in an agglomeration of 10 000 p.e. and above identified as sensitive to pollution with micropollutants, only those discharging into the area at risk should be required to apply quaternary treatment. In order to give Member States enough time to plan and deliver the necessary infrastructure, the requirement of quaternary treatment should progressively apply until 2045 with clear interim objectives.

(19)In order to ensure the continued compliance of discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants with the requirements for secondary, tertiary and quaternary treatment, samples should be taken in accordance with the requirements of this Directive and those samples should comply with the parametric values that it sets out. In order to take into account possible technical variations in the results from those samples, a maximum permitted number of samples which fail to conform to those parametric values should be laid down.

(20)The quaternary treatment necessary to remove micropollutants from urban wastewater will involve additional costs, such as costs related to monitoring and the cost of new advanced equipment to be installed in certain urban wastewater treatment plants. In order to cover those additional costs and in accordance with the polluter-pays principle expressed in Article 191(2) TFEU, it is essential that the producers placing on the Union market products containing substances which, at the end of their life, are found as micropollutants in urban wastewater take responsibility for the additional treatment required to remove those substances, generated in the context of their professional activities. A system of extended producer responsibility is the most appropriate means to achieve this, as it would limit the financial impact on the taxpayer and water tariffs, while providing an incentive to develop greener products. In this context, extended producer responsibility should apply regardless of whether the products are placed on the market, or whether their individual components were manufactured in a Member State or third country, or whether the producers have a registered office in the Union or the product is placed on the market via a digital platform. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetic residues currently represent the main sources of micropollutants found in urban wastewater requiring quaternary treatment. Therefore, extended producer responsibility should apply to those two product groups. On the basis of the results of the urban wastewater monitoring and the most recent scientific data, the Commission should regularly evaluate whether other products should be included in the extended producer responsibility system.

(21)According to the available data, the potential increase of costs of products or the potential reduction of the profit margins of the industries placing products on the Union market due to the application of extended producer responsibility would be marginal at Union level and would not endanger the affordability, availability or accessibility of those products on the Union market. Member States should, however, take into consideration the possible impacts of the application of the requirements of the extended producer responsibility on the accessibility, availability and affordability of products at national level, in particular medicines, placed on the Union market, as well as the possible impacts of the application of those requirements on the level playing field. Member States can take action to ensure sufficient funds are available, including by financing part of the costs for the quaternary treatment. Given that Member States might choose different implementation approaches, attention should be paid to the functioning of the internal market and, in any forthcoming evaluation of this Directive, the Commission should assess any potential impacts in this regard.

(22)Exemptions from the extended producer responsibility obligations should nevertheless be possible. This should be the case where the total amount of substances contained in products placed on the Union market by a producer amount to small quantities, i.e. less than 1 tonne per year, since the additional administrative burden for the producer would in such cases be disproportionate compared to the environmental benefits. Exemptions should also be possible for the part of the products for which the producer can demonstrate that no micropollutants are generated at the end of life of the product or where it can be proven that the residues from a product are rapidly biodegradable in wastewater and the environment or do not reach the urban wastewater treatment plants. The Commission should establish detailed criteria to identify the products placed on the Union market that do not generate micropollutants in urban wastewater at the end of their life, taking into account their hazardousness and their biodegradability. When developing those criteria, the Commission should take into account criteria already set in Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11), but also scientific or other available technical information, including relevant international standards. Those criteria should be established before the extended producer responsibility obligations provided for in this Directive enter into force.

(23)In order to avoid possible internal market distortions, minimum requirements for the implementation of the extended producer responsibility system should be established in this Directive, while the practical organisation of that system should be decided at national level. In order to favour the substitution of substances and products generating micropollutants residues in urban wastewater, the contributions of the producers should be proportionate to the quantities of the substances contained in the products they place on the market and the hazardousness of those substances and their residues. The contributions should cover, but not exceed, the investment and operational costs for the monitoring activities for micropollutants, the collection, reporting and impartial verification of statistics on the quantities and hazardousness of products placed on the Member States market, and the application of the quaternary treatment to urban wastewater in an efficient manner. Those contributions should also cover operational costs of already established quaternary treatment at the date of entry into force of this Directive when it is necessary to meet the obligations of the extended producer responsibility system. It should also cover part of the investment costs of the established quaternary treatments, taking into account the depreciation of the investments and the deadlines of the financing obligations established in this Directive. Since urban wastewater is treated collectively, it is appropriate to introduce a requirement for producers to join a centralised organisation which can implement their obligations under the extended producer responsibility on their behalf.

(24)The evaluation has also shown that the urban wastewater treatment sector offers the opportunity to significantly reduce its own energy consumption and to produce renewable energy, for example by better use of the available surfaces in urban wastewater treatment plants for solar energy production or by producing biogas from sludge as well as by heat or kinetic energy or other renewable energy sources. The evaluation also illustrated that, without clear legal obligations, only partial progress can be expected in that sector. In this context, Member States should be required to ensure that the total annual energy used by all urban wastewater treatment plants on their territory treating a load of 10 000 p.e. and above does not exceed the production of energy from renewable sources as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12), by those urban wastewater treatment plants. In order to take into account the specificities of each urban wastewater treatment plant, optimise the investments needed and provide for the required flexibility to reach the energy neutrality objective, while ensuring that the potential for renewable energy production and for energy savings is fully achieved, that objective should be met at national level and not for each treatment plant. All renewable energies produced by the urban wastewater treatment plants operators or their owners, whether on-site or off-site, such as hydraulic, solar, thermal, wind energy or biogas, should be taken into account. That objective should be progressively met with interim targets by 31 December 2045. It should be possible to purchase a limited amount of non-fossil energy, not directly linked to urban wastewater treatment activities, from external sources in 2040 and 2045, through the use of a derogation linked to conditions. Renewable energy generated by or on behalf of the owners or operators of the urban wastewater treatment plant should not comprise purchased renewable energy. Reaching that energy neutrality objective will contribute in particular to reducing the avoidable GHG emissions from the urban wastewater treatment sector, while supporting the achievement of the 2050 climate neutrality objectives and related national and Union objectives, such as the objectives set out in Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council (13). However, initiatives to achieve energy neutrality should not lead to an increase in emissions of methane or nitrous oxide. In line with Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Member States should facilitate permit granting procedures for renewable energy projects required to reach energy neutrality of the urban wastewater treatment sector. Encouraging EU-based biogas or solar energy production while enhancing energy efficiency measures in line with the Energy Efficiency First principle defined in Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council (14) and making an optimal use of digitalisation, which means taking utmost account of cost-efficient energy efficiency measures in shaping energy policy and making relevant investment decisions, will also help reduce the Union’s energy dependence, one of the objectives expressed in the communication from the Commission of 18 May 2022 entitled ‘REPower EU Plan’. It is also in line with Directive (EU) 2018/844 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15) and with Directive (EU) 2018/2001 in which urban wastewater treatment sites are identified as ‘go-to’ areas for renewables, meaning a location designated as particularly suitable for the installation of plants for the production of energy from renewable sources. In order to reach the objective of energy neutrality via optimal measures for each urban wastewater treatment plant and for the collection system, Member States should ensure that energy audits, as defined in Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16), are carried out every four years. Those audits should also include an identification of the potential for reduction of energy consumption, cost-effective recovery and use of waste heat, either on-site or via a district energy system, or cost-effective use or production of renewable energy following the criteria set out in Annex VI to Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (17).

(25)Since methane emission reductions have a greater impact on climate change mitigation than carbon dioxide emission reductions proportionately, and due to the urban wastewater treatment sector being identified as one of the main emitting sectors for methane emissions, that sector should monitor and aim to reduce methane emissions as outlined in the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP 26), similar to the Methane Emissions Reduction in Regulation (EU) 2024/1787 of the European Parliament and of the Council (18), in order to ensure the urban wastewater treatment sector’s contribution to the achievement of the climate neutrality target by 2050 at the latest, as set out in Regulation (EU) 2021/1119.

(26)Since the transboundary nature of water pollution requires cooperation between neighbouring Member States or third countries in addressing such pollution and identifying measures to tackle its source, Member States should be required to inform each other or the third country concerned if significant water pollution originating from urban wastewater discharges in one Member State or third country impacts or is likely to impact the water quality of another Member State or third country. Such information should be provided immediately in cases of incidental pollution significantly affecting downstream water bodies, and responses should be communicated in a timely manner. Where Member States have concluded previous agreements between them or with third countries on environmental water issues, cooperation through those agreements could be taken into account. The Commission should be informed of such pollution and, if necessary, participate in meetings at the request of Member States. It is also important to tackle the transboundary pollution from third countries sharing the same water bodies with some of the Member States. For the purpose of dealing with pollution coming from or arriving in third countries, the cooperation and coordination with third countries may be carried out in the framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (19) or other relevant regional Conventions such as the Regional Seas or Rivers Conventions.

(27)In order to ensure the protection of the environment and human health, Member States should ensure that the collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants built to comply with the requirements of this Directive are designed, constructed, operated and maintained to ensure sufficient performance under all normal local climatic conditions. As urban wastewater infrastructure has been recognised as critical entities under Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and of the Council (20), Member States should also ensure that urban wastewater treatment plants and collecting systems are assessed as regards their vulnerability to extreme events occurring due to climate change, when they are being designed, constructed and operated.

(28)Urban wastewater treatment plants also receive non-domestic wastewater, including industrial wastewater, which can contain a range of pollutants not explicitly covered by Directive 91/271/EEC, such as heavy metals, microplastics, micropollutants and other chemicals, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Such non-domestic wastewater may come, for example, from industries, commercial establishments, or hospitals and other medical facilities. In most instances, there is a poor understanding and poor knowledge of such pollution, which can lead to a deterioration in the functioning of the treatment process and contribute to the pollution of the receiving waters, while also preventing the recovery of sludge and the reuse of treated wastewater. Member States should therefore regularly monitor and report on such non-domestic pollution that enters urban wastewater treatment plants and is discharged into water bodies. To prevent pollution from non-domestic wastewater discharges at source, releases from industries or enterprises connected to collecting systems should be subject to prior regulations or specific authorisation, or both, by the competent authority or appropriate body. In order to ensure that collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants are technically capable of receiving and treating the incoming pollution, the operators who manage urban wastewater treatment plants receiving non-domestic wastewater should be consulted and informed before those authorisations are issued or those prior regulations are adopted, and should be able to consult, on request, the issued authorisations in order to be able to adapt their treatment processes. Where non-domestic pollution is identified in the incoming waters, Member States should take appropriate measures to reduce pollution at source, by enhancing the monitoring of pollutants in collecting systems so that the pollution sources can be identified and, where necessary, by reviewing the authorisations provided to relevant, connected urban wastewater treatment plants.

(29)The water resources of the Union are increasingly under pressure, resulting in permanent or temporary water scarcity in some areas of the Union. The Union’s ability to respond to the increasing pressures on water resources could be improved through a wider reuse of treated urban wastewater, limiting freshwater abstraction from surface and groundwater bodies. Therefore, the reuse of treated urban wastewater should be encouraged and applied whenever appropriate, especially in water-stressed areas, and for all appropriate purposes, while ensuring the minimum ecological flow of the receiving waters and taking into account the need to ensure that the objectives of good ecological and chemical status of the receiving bodies, as defined in Directive 2000/60/EC, are met. To achieve this, Member States should carry out monitoring of the impact of the reuse of treated urban wastewater on the minimum ecological flow of receiving waters in their assessment of impacts carried out under Directive 2000/60/EC. The potential for the reuse of treated urban wastewater should be assessed while taking into account the river basin management plans established under Directive 2000/60/EC and Member States’ decisions under Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) 2020/741 of the European Parliament and of the Council (21), as well as the need to ensure that the objectives of good ecological and chemical status of the receiving bodies, as defined in Directive 2000/60/EC, are met. The reinforcement of the requirements for the treatment of urban wastewater, and the actions to better monitor, track and reduce pollution at source, will have impacts on the quality of treated urban wastewater, and will therefore support water reuse. Where water reuse serves the purpose of agricultural irrigation, it should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2020/741. Where appropriate to ensure the safe reuse of treated urban wastewater, Member States should consider quaternary treatment for the urban wastewater that is reused or will be reused. Measures on promoting the reuse of treated urban wastewater and on such reuse itself should be considered in strategies on water resilience at Member State level, when such strategies are available.

(30)The nutrients contained in urban wastewater can be useful in cases where treated urban wastewater is reused in agriculture in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2020/741. In those cases, Member States should be able to benefit, under specific conditions which ensure the highest level of protection of the environment and human health, from a derogation from the obligation to apply tertiary treatment in accordance with this Directive only for the part of the treated urban wastewater that is reused in agriculture.

(31)In order to ensure the proper implementation of this Directive and in particular respect for the emission limit values, it is important to monitor discharges of treated urban wastewater into the environment. The monitoring should be done through the establishment at national level of a mandatory system for prior regulations or specific authorisations, or both, in order to discharge the treated urban wastewater into the environment. In addition, in order to prevent unintentional discharges of biomedia into the environment from urban wastewater treatment plants using biomedia, it is essential to include in the discharge authorisations or regulations, or both, specific obligations to continuously monitor and prevent such discharges. Such biomedia are usually made of plastic and might include, inter alia, biocarriers, biobeads or polystyrene beads.

(32)Where necessary, Member States should adapt their urban wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure according to the size of their population and to the associated load of domestic wastewater in order to remain compliant with the requirements of this Directive. The possible impact of discharges on water bodies resulting from the construction and adaptation of such infrastructure should not be considered to be a breach of their obligations under Directive 2000/60/EC provided that all the conditions laid down under this Directive are fulfilled.

(33)In order to ensure the protection of the environment, direct discharges of biodegradable non-domestic wastewater into the environment from certain industrial sectors should be subject to appropriate requirements. Those requirements should ensure that direct discharges from certain industrial sectors are subject to secondary, tertiary and quaternary treatment as necessary for the protection of the environment and human health, and that, upon final analysis, the parameters set for treated wastewater are respected or the same level of environmental protection is ensured.

(34)According to Article 168(1) TFEU, Union action complements national policies and is to be directed towards improving public health and preventing diseases. In order to ensure optimal use of relevant public health data from urban wastewater, urban wastewater surveillance should be set up and used for preventive or early warning purposes, for instance in the detection of specific viruses in urban wastewater as a signal of the emergence of epidemics or pandemics. Member States should establish a dialogue and coordination between competent authorities responsible for public health and competent authorities responsible for urban wastewater management. In the context of that coordination, roles, responsibilities and costs should be clearly allocated among those competent authorities. Member States should develop a list of parameters relevant for public health to be monitored in urban wastewater as well as the frequency and location of the sampling, taking into account the recommendations of, among others, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and of the World Health Organization (WHO) and consider the following health parameters for inclusion in such a list: SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, poliovirus, influenza virus, emerging pathogens and any other public health parameters that may be considered relevant. On the basis of information gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic and experience gained from the implementation of Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/472 (22), Member States should be required to monitor relevant health parameters in urban wastewater in the event of a health emergency. In order to ensure that harmonised methods are used, Member States should, to the extent possible, use the sampling and analysis methods set out in Recommendation (EU) 2021/472 for the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.

(35)The Union recognises the importance of tackling the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in particular in the Communication from the Commission of 29 June 2017 entitled ‘A European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)’, and adopted the European One Health Action Plan against AMR. According to the WHO, urban wastewater is recognised and documented as a major source of antimicrobial agents and their metabolites, as well as antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and their genes. In order to increase the knowledge on the main sources of AMR, a monitoring obligation for the presence of AMR in urban wastewater should be introduced to further develop our scientific knowledge and potentially take adequate action in the future.

(36)This Directive acknowledges the ‘One Health’ approach, as recognised by the WHO, to be an integrated and unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems. The ‘One Health’ approach recognises that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment, including ecosystems, are closely interlinked and interdependent.

(37)In order to protect the environment and human health, Member States should identify and assess the risks caused by urban wastewater management. The risk assessment could include a broad chemical screening, including chemical mixtures, or biological effect-based methods, or both, in order to identify substances that cause concern for, inter alia, aquatic life or the quality of drinking or bathing water. On the basis of that identification, and where necessary to comply with the requirements of the Union water legislation, Member States should take measures for the collection and treatment of urban wastewater that are more stringent than the measures required to comply with the minimum requirements set out in this Directive. In line with Article 191(2) TFEU and in addition to the measures provided for or taken in accordance with Article 11(3) of Directive 2000/60/EC, Member States should promote, as a priority, the control of pollutants at source to prevent the pollution of receiving water bodies. In particular, Member States should take preventive measures to limit the risk that intentionally and unintentionally released microplastics reach urban wastewater and sludge.

(38)Depending on the situation, those more stringent measures can include, inter alia, the establishment of collecting systems, the development of integrated urban wastewater management plans or the application of secondary, tertiary or quaternary treatment to urban wastewater for agglomerations or urban wastewater treatment plants that do not reach the p.e. thresholds triggering the application of the standard requirements. They can also include treatment that is more advanced than the treatment necessary to respect the minimum requirements or disinfection of treated urban wastewater necessary to comply with Directive 2006/7/EC.

(39)Target 6.2 of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation requires Member States, by 2030, to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. Sanitation facilities should allow the safe management and disposal of human urine, faeces and menstrual blood and the changing of menstrual products. Furthermore, Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states that everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water and sanitation. Against that background, and in accordance with the recommendations in the WHO Guidelines for Sanitation and Health (23) and the Protocol on Water and Health to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, done in London on 17 June 1999, Member States should tackle the issue of access to sanitation at national level. That should be done through actions ensuring access to sanitation for all, for example by setting up sanitation facilities in public spaces, as well as by encouraging the availability of appropriate sanitation facilities in public administrations and public buildings free of charge or making them affordable to all, including all kinds of facilities and services, such as flush and dry toilets. They should be safely managed, which means that they should be accessible to all, where appropriate, at all times, including for people with particular needs, such as children, older persons, persons with disabilities and homeless people, that they should be placed in a location that ensures maximum safety for users, and that they should be hygienically and technically safe to use. Such facilities should also be sufficient in number to ensure that the needs of people are met and waiting times are not unreasonably long. The sufficient number of sanitation facilities in public spaces should be decided at the appropriate level, taking into account the principle of subsidiarity.

(40)The specific situation of minority cultures, such as Roma and Travellers, whether settled or not, and in particular their lack of access to sanitation, was acknowledged in the Communication from the Commission of 7 October 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation’, which calls for increasing effective equal access to essential services. Overall, it is appropriate that Member States pay particular attention to vulnerable groups or groups that are marginalised due to factors related to their socio-economic situation, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, homelessness, legal status, religious conviction or other reasons by taking the measures necessary to ensure access to sanitation for those groups. It is important that the identification of those groups be consistent with Article 16(1) of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council (24). Measures to improve access to sanitation by vulnerable and marginalised groups might include providing sanitation facilities in public and private spaces for free or for a low service fee as well as in public administration buildings, improving or maintaining the connection to adequate systems to collect urban wastewater, and raising awareness of the nearest sanitation facilities.

(41)According to the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, adopted by the Council on 17 June 2019, particular attention has to be given to the needs of women and girls, as they are particularly at risk and exposed to attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, harassment and other threats to their safety when accessing sanitation facilities outside their homes. This is in line with the Council Conclusions on Water Diplomacy, adopted on 19 November 2018, which reaffirm the importance of integrating a gender perspective into water diplomacy. Therefore, Member States should pay particular attention to women and girls as being a vulnerable group and should take the measures necessary to improve or maintain safe access to sanitation for them.

(42)The evaluation concluded that sludge management could be improved to better align it with the principles of the circular economy and of the waste hierarchy as defined in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (25). The actions to better monitor and reduce pollution at source from non-domestic discharges will contribute to improving the quality of the sludge produced and ensure its safe use in agriculture. In order to ensure the proper and safe recovery of nutrients, including the critical substance phosphorus, from sludge, a minimum combined reuse and recycling rate should be set at Union level. Member States should be able to choose whether to reuse or recycle, or both, urban wastewater or sludge, or both, in order to recover phosphorus. The combined minimum reuse and recycling rate should take into account the phosphorus content of sludge, which can vary from one area to another. It should also take into account the level of saturation of each national market, for example the availability of other sources of phosphorus from organic sources, for instance from livestock farming, and the possibilities of its absorption in agriculture. Member States should be encouraged to monitor micropollutants in sludge, particularly where there is a risk of accumulation of micropollutants in sludge, and when it is reused in agriculture in order to increase knowledge about its presence and to protect the environment and human health. The proper and safe recovery of nutrients and their reuse in agriculture should be encouraged in order to support the resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector and contribute to the strategic autonomy of the Union fertiliser industry. In that context, Member States should, while taking into account national and local valorisation options, take measures to encourage the production and purchasing of recovered nutrients from urban wastewater and sludge. When reusing sludge in agriculture particular attention should be paid to microplastics. Microplastics should therefore be systematically monitored when sludge is reused in agriculture. This information is indispensable for the safe management of sludge in agriculture and any possible review of relevant Union policy.

(43)Adequate monitoring is necessary to verify compliance with the new requirements of this Directive concerning micropollutants, non-domestic pollution, energy neutrality, storm water overflows and urban runoff. Monitoring should be supported, where technically feasible and appropriate, through the use of digital tools. In particular for the operational management of collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants, the use of digital tools should be systematically considered. To verify the compliance of the quaternary treatment concerning the reduction of micropollutants in urban wastewater discharges, it is sufficient to monitor a limited set of representative micropollutants. The monitoring frequencies should be built on the current best practices, as currently practised in Switzerland. To remain cost-effective, those obligations should be adapted to the size of the urban wastewater treatment plants and of the agglomerations. For the purposes of such monitoring, this Directive provides for sampling to be carried out. Each time sampling is carried out, a sample is taken both at the inlet and outlet of the urban wastewater treatment plant. The monitoring will also contribute to providing data for the overall Environmental Monitoring Framework as set up under the 8th Environmental Action Programme (26), and more specifically to feeding the Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook Framework underpinning it, set out in the Commission Communication of 12 May 2021 entitled ‘Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All EU Action Plan: “Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil”’.

(44)Microplastics and relevant micropollutants should be monitored, where relevant, in storm water overflow discharges and in discharges of urban runoff from separate systems with a representative sampling programme allowing for concentration estimation with a view to modelling water quality. GHG emissions should be monitored by means of analysis, calculations or modelling, where appropriate.

(45)To ensure the protection of the environment and that adequate action is taken under any risk assessment to be carried out for the implementation of this Directive as well as for the implementation of other Union law, Member States should monitor a broad spectrum of pollutants at the inlets and outlets of the urban wastewater treatment plants. To avoid an unnecessary burden, only pollutants that can be expected to be found in urban wastewater should be monitored, taking into account the high variety of pollutants which could reach urban wastewater treatment plants, including from non-domestic wastewater sources. Member States should be able to reduce the monitoring frequency if pollutants are not found in subsequent sampling campaigns. More specifically, recent data shows that PFAS are found in urban wastewater, sometimes at high concentrations. The most recent scientific evidence shows that PFAS are a concern for the environment and for public health due to their persistence. It is therefore essential to better understand the pathways of PFAS into the environment and to monitor them in the inlet and outlet of the urban wastewater treatment plants. This monitoring should start in the first instance where the discharges reach catchment areas used for the abstraction of drinking water, due to the high risks of being exposed to PFAS and their impact on health.

(46)In order to reduce the administrative burden and better use the possibilities offered by digitalisation, the reporting on the implementation of this Directive should be improved and simplified by removing the obligation for Member States to report every two years to the Commission and for the Commission to publish bi-yearly reports. It should be replaced by a requirement for Member States to improve, with the support of the EEA, the existing national standardised data sets established under Directive 91/271/EEC, and to regularly update them. The Commission will use those improved data sets to verify compliance with this Directive. It is appropriate for the reporting model to be developed by the EEA in collaboration with Member States. Access to the national databases should be provided to the Commission and the EEA. In order to ensure complete information on the application of this Directive, the data sets should include information on compliance of urban wastewater treatment plants with the treatment requirements (pass/fail, loads and concentration of pollutants discharged), on the level of achievement of the objectives of energy neutrality, on GHG emissions of the treatment plants above 10 000 p.e. and on measures taken by the Member States in the context of storm water overflows and urban runoff, access to sanitation and treatment by individual systems. Moreover, full consistency with Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (27) should be ensured in order to optimise the use of the data, as well as to support full transparency. The information collected through those data sets should support a comparison of, and an exchange of best practices at Union level with regard to, the performance of urban wastewater treatment plants. The administrative burden of providing information and data to the public should at all times be such as to respect the principle of proportionality.

(47)The implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC is financed through water tariffs and public budgets, including Union funding. In the future, the extended producer responsibility should be such as to ensure that the costs of the quaternary treatment are at least partially borne by the industries concerned and complemented by other types of financing. In the past, the implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC was also substantially supported by the Union’s Cohesion Policy and programmes under Horizon 2020 and LIFE. In order to ensure the timely and proper implementation of this Directive, it is essential that Member States establish a national implementation programme including long-term programming of the required investments accompanied by a financing strategy. Those national implementation programmes should be reported to the Commission. To limit the administrative burden, that requirement should not apply to Member States in which more than 95 % of the agglomerations are compliant with the main obligations to treat and collect wastewater. To continue the implementation of this Directive, the Commission should consider the national implementation programmes reported by Member States for the preparation of the next multiannual financial framework and those following thereafter and the Member States should put in place the required extended producer responsibility system without delay.

(48)The urban wastewater collection and treatment sector is specific, operating as a captive market, with public and small enterprises being connected to the collecting system without being able to choose their operators. It is therefore important to ensure public access to operators’ key performance indicators, such as the level of treatment achieved, the costs of treatment, the energy used and produced, and the related GHG emissions and carbon footprint. In order to make the public more aware of the implications of urban wastewater treatment, key information on the annual wastewater collection and treatment costs for each household should be provided, at least in agglomerations above 10 000 p.e., and preferably above 1 000 p.e., in an easily accessible manner, for instance on the invoices, while other detailed information should be accessible in a user-friendly format online, on a website of the operator or the competent authority.

(49)Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (28) guarantees the right of access to environmental information in the Member States in line with the 1998 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the ‘Aarhus Convention’) (29). The Aarhus Convention encompasses broad obligations related both to making environmental information available upon request and actively disseminating such information. It is important that the provisions of this Directive related to access to information and data-sharing arrangements complement that Directive, by establishing the obligation to make available to the public online information on the collection and treatment of urban wastewater in a user-friendly manner, without creating a separate legal regime.

(50)The effectiveness of this Directive and its aim of protecting public health in the context of the Union’s environment policy require that natural or legal persons, or where appropriate their duly constituted organisations, be able to rely on it in legal proceedings and that the national courts be able to take this Directive into consideration as an element of Union law in order, inter alia, to review decisions of a national authority where appropriate. In addition, according to settled case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, under the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), it is for the courts of the Member States to ensure judicial protection of a person’s rights under Union law. Furthermore, Article 19(1) TEU requires Member States to provide remedies sufficient to ensure effective legal protection in the fields covered by Union law. This should be done in accordance with national rules, without depriving the provision on compensation of its effectiveness. In addition, in accordance with the Aarhus Convention, members of the public concerned are to have access to justice in order to contribute to the protection of the right to live in an environment which is adequate for personal health and well-being.

(51)To adapt this Directive to scientific and technical progress, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending certain parts of the Annexes with regard to the adaptation of monitoring to state-of-the-art methods for monitoring, including with a view to making optimal use of digital tools and taking into account the relevant methods used in other relevant Union law, and evaluation of results for the requirements for the tertiary and quaternary treatment, and the requirements for prior regulations and specific authorisations for discharges of non-domestic wastewater into collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants and in respect of supplementing this Directive by specifying a minimum combined reuse and recycling rate for phosphorus from sludge and from urban wastewater, taking into account available technologies and resources as well as the economic viability for phosphorus recovery and by updating the information provided to the public online and to households. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (30). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(52)In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission for the adoption of standards for the design of individual systems, for the establishment of the format of the reporting and the level of detail of the information in relation to individual systems, for establishing the format and the method of the risk assessment to be used in the context of the quaternary treatment, for the adoption of monitoring and assessment methods for the indicators of the quaternary treatment and the objectives regarding energy neutrality, for the establishment of common conditions and criteria for the application of the exemption for certain products from extended producer responsibility, for establishing methodologies for supporting the development of integrated urban wastewater management plans, for the development of alternative indicators to the load-based indicative objective of pollution reduction based for instance on volume, number of occurrences of storm water overflows, volume of the discharged urban runoff, or other relevant alternative indicators, and for establishing a minimum frequency of sampling and methodologies for measuring antimicrobial resistance, direct and indirect GHG emissions and microplastics in urban wastewater and sludge, for the establishment of a minimum list of relevant pollutants likely to be found in urban wastewater including a methodology for identifying relevant pollutants likely to be found in urban wastewater and criteria for revising the exclusion of some pollutants to be monitored, for the establishment of a harmonised methodology for measuring ‘Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Total’ and ‘Sum of PFAS’ in urban wastewater and for the adoption of the format of, and modalities for presenting, the information to be provided by Member States and compiled by the EEA on the implementation of this Directive. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (31).

(53)Member States should lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and should take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and should, as applicable, take into account the financial situation of the natural or legal person held responsible.

(54)Pursuant to the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making, the Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Directive within a certain period of time from the date set for its transposition. That evaluation should be based on experience gained and data collected during the implementation of this Directive, on any available WHO recommendations, and on relevant scientific, analytical, and epidemiological data. In the evaluation, particular attention should be given to an analysis of the adequacy of the public health parameters used in urban wastewater surveillance, an analysis of the added value of a mandatory monitoring of public health parameters, an analysis of the possible necessity to adapt the list of products to be covered by extended producer responsibility systems including the conditions for exemptions, an analysis of the possible impacts on the functioning of the internal market of the potentially different contribution rates for producers set by Member States, an analysis of the feasibility and appropriateness of the development of an extended producer responsibility system for products generating PFAS and microplastics, an analysis of the added value and the appropriateness of requiring mandatory national water reuse plans including national targets and measures, an evaluation of the objective of energy neutrality in order to analyse the technical and economic feasibility and environmental and climate benefits to achieve a higher level of energy autonomy in the sector, an evaluation of the possibilities for measuring direct and indirect GHG emissions emitted from the urban wastewater sector, an evaluation of the possibility of reaching climate neutrality for the urban wastewater treatment sector, and the time required to do so, as well as the feasibility and appropriateness of setting Union minimum reuse and recycling rates for nitrogen from sludge or from urban wastewater, or both.

(55)Directive 91/271/EEC provides for specific deadlines for Mayotte due to its inclusion in 2014 as an outermost region within the meaning of Article 349 TFEU. Therefore, the application of the obligations to establish collecting systems and apply secondary treatment to urban wastewater from agglomerations of 2 000 p.e. and above should be deferred with respect to Mayotte.

(56)It is appropriate to consider the specific situation of Mayotte and the Union’s other outermost regions, as listed in Article 349 TFEU, which provides for specific measures to support those regions. In terms of urban wastewater treatment of those territories, special attention should be given to the difficult topography and insularity of those territories.

(57)In order to ensure the continuity of the protection of the environment, it is important that Member States maintain at least the current level of tertiary treatment until the new requirements for the reduction of phosphorus and nitrogen become applicable. Therefore, Article 5 of Directive 91/271/EEC should continue to apply until those new requirements become applicable.

(58)Since the objectives of this Directive, namely to protect the environment and public health, to make progress in achieving climate neutrality for urban wastewater collection and treatment activities, to improve access to sanitation and to ensure the regular surveillance of parameters relevant to public health, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 TEU. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(59)The obligation to transpose this Directive into national law should be confined to those provisions which represent a substantive amendment as compared to Directive 91/271/EEC. The obligation to transpose the provisions which are unchanged arises under that Directive.

(60)This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time limits for the transposition into national law of the Directives set out in Part B of Annex VII,