Water in the Circular Economy policy development. Workshop report with findings from demo cases of Horizon 2020 projects

“The workshop on ‘Water in the Circular Economy policy development‘ is a joint event of Water Europe (WE), EASME and NextGen organised in the frame of Water Knowledge Europe 2021 (WKE2021), side event Water Projects Europe (WPE2021).
The workshop session took place on 26 March 2021 and was hosted by Andrea Rubini (WE) in collaboration with Violeta Kuzmickaite (EASME) and Jos Frijns (NextGen).
The EU Circular Economy Action Plan provides the basis for a regulatory framework that is streamlined and made fit for a sustainable future. In this report, we reflect on the policy implications for the implementation and transferability of initiatives to further close water cycles, reuse water, and recover energy and nutrients from wastewater, based on real-life experience from water in the Circular Economy (CE) demonstration cases across Europe.
In Water Projects Europe 3rd edition water experts and policy makers discussed the governance challenges in the transition towards circular water solutions. Experts from a number of EU Horizon 2020-projects on Water in the context of the Circular Economy reviewed with EU policy-makers relevant regulations, such as the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive and Sewage Sludge Directive.
The programme consisted of brief presentations from the projects, each highlighting relevant directive topics, and showing results from a demo case on the policy implications for the circular water solutions. Each presentation finalized with a discussion statement. After two sessions with three presentations, the EC policy officers reflected on the statements.”

(Citation: Frijns, J.A.G., Charpentier, L., Malamis, S., et.al. – European Commisssion – Water in the Circular Economy policy development. Workshop report with findings from demo cases of Horizon 2020 projects (2021))