Members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted the position paper of local and regional politicians on EU regulations on minimum requirements for water reuse during the 5-6 December plenary session. This important document, containing innovative proposals, was prepared under the leadership of the ECR Vice-President Oldřich Vlasák. It calls on the EU institutions to enlarge the scope of the proposed regulation for the irrigation of urban areas.

In May of this year, the European Commission published its first proposal for a regulation on minimum requirements for water reuse. As part of the approval process, the proposal is being discussed by local and regional authorities in the European Committee of the Regions. The CoR spokesperson on this dossier is Oldřich Vlasák (ECR/CZ).

Mr Vlasák, Councillor for Hradec Králové, stated: "we propose increasing the scope of the proposed regulation not just for agricultural irrigation, but also for the irrigation of green spaces in urban areas, parks, gardens and grounds for public use. We need proper and standardised regulation at the EU level to safeguard the single market with regard to agricultural products."

In the CoR's position paper, Mr Vlasák referred to the need to extend the scope of the regulation to other areas of use, such as irrigating urban green spaces, washing cars and cleaning streets. The document outlines that for the regulation to be implemented successfully, responsibility for the use of treated waste water should also be shared out among producers (operators of wastewater treatment plants) and future users.

Mr Vlasák, apart from being a Councillor and a Member of the CoR, is also the Director of the Water Supply and Sewerage Association of the Czech Republic (SOVAK). The groundwork for his opinion was provided by a team of experts on the use of treated waste water, led by Professor Jiří Wanner from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague.