Policy

• sylvester
• Policy
• October 17, 2025

EEA Briefing 2025: Pollution Still Threatens European Waters Despite Progress

According to the new EEA briefing (29/09/2025), despite declines in some hazardous substances, pollution continues to threaten ecosystems: only 30% of surface waters achieve good chemical status (77% if uPBTs are excluded — ubiquitous Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic substances), eutrophication persists, and emerging pollutants such as pharmaceuticals and PCPs (Personal Care Products) are detected in aquatic systems. Over the next decade, further reductions in chemical/plastic pollution are expected, but 2030 targets remain challenging: WFD (Water Framework Directive), ZPAP (Zero Pollution Action Plan: −50% nutrient losses), and MSFD (Marine Strategy Framework Directive). This calls for stronger implementation of the UWWTD (Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive) and IED (Industrial Emissions Directive), plus innovative monitoring using ML (Machine Learning) and non-target screening. The accompanying maps/figures highlight water bodies failing good status (Figure 1) and coastal macrolitter trends (Figure 2). For PharmaDetox, this means prioritising quaternary treatment and control of industrial effluents to cut micropollutants/pharmaceutical loads, alongside upstream interventions and advanced monitoring to support Zero Pollution goals and curb AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) drivers.

• sylvester
• Policy
• June 11, 2025

European Commission Adds New Substances to the 5th Surface Water Watch List

The European Commission has adopted the 5th update of the Watch List — a list of substances suspected of posing risks to both environmental and human health through aquatic exposure. The revised list includes 12 substances, ranging from plant protection products and antibiotics to human pharmaceuticals and a tyre rubber antioxidant.

EU Member State experts identified these substances as having potentially widespread impacts on aquatic ecosystems and public health. Monitoring will take place over the next two years in selected representative surface waters to gather data on concentrations and environmental presence.

Selected substances include:

• Antibiotics: norfloxacin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, and tylosin, due to their contribution to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
• Azole fungicides (10 substances including ketoconazole, itraconazole, propiconazole), selected based on hazard potential and AMR relevance.
• Pharmaceuticals: fluoxetine (antidepressant), propranolol (beta-blocker), dronedarone and amiodarone (antiarrhythmics).

If the collected data confirms broad environmental presence and risk, the substances may be proposed for inclusion in the Priority Substances list under the Water Framework Directive — which would entail setting EU-wide maximum concentration thresholds and possibly implementing emission control measures at the source.

The inclusion of pharmaceuticals in the 5th Watch List underscores the increasing importance of pharmaceutical pollution in European water policy.

Learn more: Read the full JRC report

[PDF]

• sylvester
• Policy
• June 6, 2025

Strengthening Global Action Against Antimicrobial Resistance: WHO’s 2025 Update

• sylvester
• Policy
• March 5, 2025

Ensuring wastewater discharge is dealt with properly to protect the environment and human health

Urban wastewater is one of the main sources of water pollution if it is not collected and treated according to EU rules.

It is often contaminated with bacteria, viruses, harmful chemicals, including micropollutants, and an overload of nutrients, which, when untreated and discharged into the environment, affect our health and damage our rivers, lakes, and coastal water.

Since the EU’s Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive was adopted in 1991, the quality of European rivers, lakes, and seas has radically improved. With the help of EU funding, Member States have set up collecting systems and urban wastewater treatment plants.

Over 30 years later, the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive builds on this legacy and addresses remaining pollution and new challenges in urban wastewater management.

• sylvester
• Policy
• December 21, 2023

Selection of substances for the 4th Watch List under the Water Framework Directive, European Commission, 15 August 2022

The 1^st Watch List (WL) for substances in surface waters under the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (EQSD – Directive 2013/39/EU) was established by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/495 in March 2015. The list was first updated in June 2018 by the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/840.

The period of continuous monitoring for any WL substance should not exceed four years (Article 8b of the EQSD). Thus, in 2022 the three substances added in 2018, i.e. the insecticide metaflumizone and the antibiotics amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin, should be removed. A maximum total of thirteen substances or groups of substances may be listed in the 4th WL, i.e. one more than the maximum allowed in 2020. The six substances or groups of substances added during the third WL update (EU 2020/1161) should be carried over to the 4th WL to ensure that enough high-quality monitoring data are collected for their risk assessment. Therefore, seven additional substances or groups of substances may be added to establish the 4^th WL.

The selection of candidate substances took into consideration also the hazard properties, including, for antibiotics, their possible contribution to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The selection of antibiotics is in line with the European One Health Action Plan against antimicrobial resistance (COM/2017/0339 final).

The antibiotics clindamycin, cefalexin and ofloxacin are listed as among the most suitable candidates for the WL. Following MS and Stakeholders comments, the JRC proposes clindamycin and ofloxacin for the 4th WL.

Selection of substances for the 4th Watch List under the Water Framework Directive

• sylvester
• Policy
• December 21, 2023

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2020/1161 of 4 August 2020 establishing a watch list of substances for Union-wide monitoring in the field of water policy pursuant to Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

According to the Environmental Quality Standards Directive 2008/105/EC as amended by Directive 2013/39/EU (EQSD), a mechanism was needed to provide high-quality monitoring information on the concentrations of potentially polluting substances in the aquatic environment to support future prioritization exercises in line with Article 16(2) of Directive 2000/60/EC (Water Framework Directive, WFD), and thereby to improve the protection of the aquatic environment and of human health via the environment. The mechanism was aimed at emerging pollutants and other substances for which the available monitoring data was either insufficient or of insufficient quality for the purpose of identifying the risk posed across the EU. A Watch List was created with a limited number of such substances and monitoring them EU-wide for up to 2 years. A maximum number of 10 substances or groups of substances had been included in the first Watch list, increasing by one at each update, up to a maximum of 14 substances or groups of substances. Frequent reviews of the list ensure that substances are not monitored longer than necessary, and that substances for which a significant risk at EU level is confirmed are identified as candidate priority substances with as little delay as possible.

The main criteria for inclusion in the initial list of candidate substances were that i) the substance is suspected of posing a significant risk to, or via, the aquatic environment, meaning there is reliable evidence of hazard and of a possible exposure to aquatic organisms and mammals, but ii) there is not enough information to assess the EU-wide exposure for the substance, i.e., insufficient monitoring data or data of insufficient quality, nor sufficient modeled exposure data to decide whether to prioritize the substance.

The substances of the watch list are to be selected from among those for which the available information indicates that they may pose a significant risk, at Union level, to or via the aquatic environment, but for which monitoring data are insufficient to come to a conclusion on the actual risk posed. According to Article 8b(2) of Directive 2008/105/EC, the Commission is to update the watch list every two years. When updating the list, the Commission is to remove any substance for which a risk-based assessment, as referred to in Article 16(2) of Directive 2000/60/EC can be concluded without additional monitoring data.

Based on the monitoring data obtained for the other three substances, namely metaflumizone, amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin, since 2018, the Commission concluded that insufficient high-quality monitoring data had been obtained, and therefore, those substances should remain on the watch list. The inclusion of the various pharmaceuticals is consistent with the EU Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment(5), and the inclusion of the two antibiotics is also consistent with the European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)(6), which supports the use of the watch list to ‘improve knowledge of the occurrence and spread of antimicrobials in the environment’.

Commission Implementing Decision