New EU wastewater treatment rules effective: What’s new?

The European Union’s revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) became effective on 1 January 2025. The new law introduces stricter treatment standards, extends coverage to smaller communities, and ensures polluters bear the financial burden of advanced wastewater treatment. EU Member States will now have up to 31 months to adapt their national legislation to the new rules.

The revised UWWTD now includes to urban areas with populations from 1,000 inhabitants. This ensures that smaller communities also implement proper wastewater collection and treatment systems. Secondary treatment will become obligatory to these communities by 2035. Derogations will apply to Member States where the coverage of the collecting systems is very low and therefore would require significant investments. Member States that have joined the EU more recently and have already made more recent significant investments to implement the current directive (i.e. Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia) can also benefit from derogations.

Extra treatment

By 2039, EU countries will have to ensure the application of tertiary treatment, like the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, in all plants covering 150.000 p.e. and above, and by 2045 in plants covering 10.000 p.e. and above. Under the new Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive known viruses, emerging pathogens, chemical pollutants (including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS), microplastics and antimicrobial resistance will be strictly monitored.

Extended Producer Responsibility

The law also introduces Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for medicinal products for human use and cosmetic products. At least 80% of the costs of quaternary treatment have to be covered by producers, complemented by national financing. This should ensure that consumers and taxpayers are not unduly burdened.

Reusing treated wastewater

In the new Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive EU countries will also be required to promote the reuse of treated wastewater from all urban wastewater treatment plants where appropriate, especially in water-stressed areas.  The directive pushes the wastewater sector towards energy and climate neutrality. Circularity measures promote the recovery of valuable resources like phosphorus, vital for agriculture, while encouraging water reuse to alleviate pressure on water-stressed regions.

Towards energy neutrality

The urban wastewater treatment sector could play an important role in significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping the EU achieve its climate neutrality objective. The new rules introduce an energy neutrality target, meaning that by 2045 urban wastewater treatment plants treating a load of 10 000 population equivalents and above will have to use energy from renewable sources generated by the respective plants.

Streamlined reporting

To ease administrative workloads, wastewater treatment data reporting will be digitised through the European Environment Agency, eliminating the need for biennial written reports. In the latest report from the European Commission on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Floods Directive (FD) underscores a the lack of comprehensive and comparable data. Missing data makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions on the effectiveness of water policies and the progress towards the EU’s environmental goals