Summary
Cefic submitted its feedback to the European Commission call for evidence on the “targeted revision of the Water Framework Directive” in April 2026.
In its position, Cefic supports a targeted and practical revision of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) that maintains high water quality ambitions while strengthening Europe’s resilience and investment certainty.
Key recommendations
To make the framework workable and predictable, Cefic recommends that the revision should:
- broaden its scope beyond critical raw materials,
- modernise chemical status assessment and reassess how the non-deterioration and one-out-all-out principles interact in permitting,
- ensure EU-wide harmonised monitoring methods,
- carefully assess the feasibility and enforceability of any Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) approach for water,
- fully reflect industry’s self-treatment costs when applying Article 9 cost recovery, and
- guarantee transparent, science-based standard-setting with meaningful stakeholder involvement, including through ECHA.