TRIDESETOGODIŠNJICA DIREKTIVE O TRETMANU KOMUNALNIH OTPADNIH VODA 91/271/EEZ: RAZMATRANJE POTREBA ZA NJENIM IZMENAMA

Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC sets out rules for collection, treatment and wastewater discharge, and also covers wastewater generated by industries like food processing and beer industry. The Directive primarily aims to protect the environment and people’s health from adverse effects of urban wastewater, such as eutrophication. During the 30-year span of its implementation, the Directive was amended only once, in 1998, but the reach of the amendments was limited. Within Regulatory Fitness and Performance programme (REFIT), an Evaluation of the Directive was conducted in 2019. It confirmed the effectiveness of the Directive, but also singled out some of its shortcomings and challenges in its implementation. Currently, in the European Union, feedback is being collected on the Inception impact assessment of the Revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. The key idea behind the revision is to establish a legal framework that will be better aligned with the new policy objectives set out in the European Green Deal, in particular its zero pollution ambition, while ensuring its sustainability and implementation. The proclaimed goals of the revision are set very ambitiously, particularly given that full compliance with Directive has not yet been achieved throughout the EU, and that it is estimated that investment required to reach full compliance for the 27 Member States and the UK comes to a cumulative additional total of EUR 253 billion between 2020 and 2030. The paper provides an analytical overview of the identified shortcomings in the Directive’s normative clarity and precision and its external coherence with other relevant pieces of EU acquis, following the structure of the Evaluation. The analytical overview is accompanied by a critical assessment of the proposed direction, scope and reach of regulatory interventions.