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Major reviews of EU water policy in 2016

Although there is no new legislation on water expected from the EU this year, there are some very significant reviews of existing directives either already underway or about to start.

The European Commission is currently consulting on the Drinking Water Directive review and has put forward some radical proposals relating to transparency and benchmarking of drinking water services. Among the ideas are giving customers access to real-time indicators of performance on key services anywhere in Europe.

The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive is also up for review this year. The Commission has already said it is interested in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and may want to act to improve monitoring and maintainance of them.

There is also the Water Framework Directive. Although the review is in 2019, the work is just about to start because Member States' River Basin Management Plans are due in to the Commission next month.

Water UK statement on a revision of the WFD

Drinking Water Directive consultation

Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive