Water Reuse Regulation - Regulation (EU) 2020/741
Updated on 24.06.2024
Regulation (EU) 2020/741 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 2020 on minimum requirements for water reuse (text with EEA relevance). This Regulation lays down minimum requirements for water quality and monitoring and provisions on risk management, for the safe use of reclaimed water in the context of integrated water management. The purpose of this Regulation is to guarantee that reclaimed water is safe for agricultural irrigation. The new rules apply from 26 June 2023 and are expected to encourage and facilitate water reuse in the EU.
Key objectives and (or) targets related to cities & regions
The Regulation addresses urban wastewater and its usage for agricultural irrigation, thus being relevant for cities and regions that have land used for agricultural activities on their territory and/or in its proximity. The Regulation sets out:
- harmonised minimum water quality requirements for the safe reuse of treated urban wastewaters in agricultural irrigation (Art. 4 and Section 2 of Annex I);
- harmonised minimum monitoring requirements, notably the frequency of monitoring for each quality parameter, and validation monitoring requirements (Section 2 of Annex I);
- risk management provisions to assess and address potential additional health risks and possible environmental risks (Art. 5 and Annex II);
- permitting requirements (Art. 6);
- provisions on transparency, whereby key information on every water reuse project is made available to the public (Art. 10).
The European Commission has prepared, in consultation with Member States and stakeholders, guidelines to help apply the Water Reuse Regulation. The guidelines can be found here: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/minimum-requirements-water-reuse-guidelines_en
More information about the Water Reuse Regulation can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/reuse.htm
Key dates
- Date of document: 25/05/2020; Date of signature
- Date of effect: 25/06/2020; Entry into force Date pub. +20 See Art 16
- Date of effect: 26/06/2023; Application See Art 16
- Deadline: 26/06/2022; See Art 11.5
- Deadline: 26/06/2024; See Art 15
- Deadline: 25/06/2025; See Art 13.2
- Deadline: 26/06/2026; See Art 11.1(a)
- Deadline: 26/06/2028; See Art 12.1
- Date of end of validity: No end date
e.g. commercial, residential, service, industrial
