A Presidency Steering Note for the Working Party on the Environment (WPE) meeting on 3 September 2024 sets out the structure for examining the European Parliament’s amendments to the proposal amending the Water Framework, Groundwater, and Environmental Quality Standards Directives. The note, published on 13 July 2026, aims to prepare for interinstitutional negotiations by systematically reviewing Parliament’s amendments across five thematic clusters.
The WPE meeting will focus on examining Parliament’s amendments, structured into five clusters: horizontal issues, Article 1 (Water Framework Directive), Article 2 (Groundwater Directive), Article 3 (Environmental Quality Standards Directive), and recitals. Delegations are asked to focus comments on the most important issues per block and send detailed written comments after the meeting. Member States should highlight which EP amendments are acceptable and which parts of the Council’s mandate are particularly sensitive, referring to the EP amendment number and article number.
This follows Coreper agreeing a mandate on 14 June 2024 (doc ST 11383/24), while the European Parliament adopted its position on 12 September 2023, confirmed by plenary on 24 April 2024 (doc ST 10562/24). The Presidency is steering the WPE to prepare for interinstitutional negotiations by systematically reviewing Parliament’s amendments across five thematic clusters, with delegations asked to prioritise key issues and flag sensitivities.