New EU water rules signal shift towards effect-based monitoring: interview with European Environmental Bureau

The EU’s latest water pollution rules mark a significant update for environmental monitoring professionals, expanding the list of priority pollutants that Member States must monitor in surface water and groundwater, while introducing new expectations around emerging contaminants, chemical mixtures and effect-based monitoring.

The legislation, Directive (EU) 2026/805, amends three core pieces of EU water law: the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive. It brings new and revised standards for pollutants including PFAS, pesticides and pharmaceuticals, while also putting greater attention on microplastics, antimicrobial resistance indicators and the cumulative effects of chemical mixtures.

To understand what these changes mean in practice, Envirotech Online spoke to Sara Johansson, Policy Manager for Water at the European Environmental Bureau. Johansson works on water pollution policy, including the ongoing revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and the update of priority substances for surface and groundwater. Before joining the EEB, she worked on research and development projects in innovative wastewater treatment at Lund University, AnoxKaldnes and Veolia, and holds a PhD in Water Science & Technology from the University of Girona.

In this interview, Johansson discusses what the new rules mean for monitoring professionals, why effect-based monitoring matters, where implementation challenges may arise, and why she believes the wider direction of EU water policy remains politically fragile.

Which recent EU water rules are most important for environmental monitoring professionals to understand?

The EU has recently adopted new rules for water pollution (a directive amending the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive) that entered into force earlier this month. This includes an update of the list of priority pollutants that Member States have to monitor in surface and groundwater. Member States are also required to take measures to comply with the new quality standards. Unfortunately, the efficiency of this is undermined by the very long time, until 2039 with possibility to derogate to 2045, that Member States got to comply with the new quality standards. 

Do the new EU rules point towards more routine use of advanced techniques, such as high-resolution mass spectrometry, non-target screening, effect-based monitoring or automated sampling?

Yes, the new rules require Member States to apply effect-based methods to monitor the cumulative risks of estrogenic substances. However, there are still no trigger values (the equivalent of environmental quality standards for EBM) defined so the results are still not part of the status assessment of water quality. This means the status assessment is still very much on a substance-by-substance basis, which risks overlooking cumulative effects of chemicals cocktails. 

Are there any risks that the monitoring requirements could become difficult to implement consistently across Member States?

This will largely be the result of Member States willingness to invest in environmental monitoring, including training of staff and ensuring sufficient economic resources. Unfortunately, in too many cases we see the budgets for environmental monitoring not being sufficient. 

What would you most like environmental monitoring professionals to understand about the direction of EU water policy?

Unfortunately, at the moment, the EU's main water policy, the Water Framework Directive is at substantial risk of being weakened. In December last year the Commission, in the RESource EU action plan, announced that they intend to 'review and revise' the WFD in Q2 this year 'to promote access to critical raw materials'. This despite no evidence has been presented that this is justified or needed. Instead, this put at risk the very core objectives of the WFD i) achieving good ecological status of Europe's waters by 2027 at the latest, and ii) preventing deterioration.