SCHEER - Position Paper on "Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive"

SCHEER members: Marian Scott (Chair), Marco Vighi (Rapporteur), Thomas Backhaus, Teresa Borges, Pim de Voogt, Peter Hoet, Rodica Mariana Ion
External experts: Andrew Johnson, Jan Linders
Contact:SANTE-SCHEERec [dot] europa [dot] eu ( SANTE-SCHEER[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
On request from: European Commission
Adopted on: 3 April 2023

The SCHEER was requested, according to the Mandate from DG Environment, to provide opinions on a series of draft EQS dossiers for newly proposed priority substances and on those EQS dossiers for existing priority substances that were recently updated.

The SCHEER welcomes the opportunity to provide a review of the proposed changes in EQS, and it is the SCHEER’s view that independent scrutiny has been essential in this process. As a result of the review, many of the proposed EQS values were endorsed, but a number of them were either amended directly by the SCHEER or detailed comments were provided suggesting what changes would be required.

During the review of more than 40 dossiers, the SCHEER identified several areas where there is scope for improvement both within the dossiers and the Technical Guidance document (2018), many were observed in different dossiers, and the SCHEER takes this opportunity to offer some reflections on overarching and detailed issues.

Keywords:

SCHEER, Position Paper, Water Framework Directive, environmental quality standards

Opinion to be cited as:

SCHEER (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks), SCHEER Position Paper on “Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive", 3 April 2023.