The EU Council has formally adopted a directive updating the list of pollutants affecting surface water and groundwater, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals and PFAS.
The revised rules also tighten environmental standards for several substances and strengthen monitoring across the EU.
The EU directive amends the water framework directive, the groundwater directive and the directive on environmental quality standards, aligning EU water policy with the latest scientific evidence.
To improve water quality, the EU has already put in place rules for monitoring and reducing the release of identified dangerous substances and pollutants in surface water and groundwater. The EU-wide list of these substances has now been expanded and updated, including pharmaceuticals (such as painkillers), pesticides, bisphenols, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, a group of so-called ‘forever chemicals’). For the first time, the directive introduces rules to assess the cumulative risk of combined substances.
Several pollutants already on the list will now be subject to tighter environmental quality standards. To support future reviews, the directive adds microplastics and antimicrobial resistance indicators to the EU’s water watchlists, which help track substances of emerging concern.
The updated directive strengthens monitoring and reporting obligations for EU countries, in order to improve water quality and transparency across the EU. One of the measures to achieve this objective is the introduction of effect-based monitoring of surface water, to assess the impact of chemical mixtures. Furthermore, EU countries may use remote sensing and earth observation technologies for their monitoring. They must report on biological quality, chemical quality and also the overall status of water bodies for more reliable data across the EU.
The European Parliament is now expected to hold the final vote on the directive by the end of March. EU countries will then have until 2039 to comply with the new standards for both surface water and groundwater. For substances with revised and more stringent environmental quality standards in surface water, the compliance deadline is 2033.
Directive on priority substances in the field of water policy
