France has submitted comments to the Council Working Party on the Environment opposing several European Parliament amendments to the revision of the Water Framework Directive that would tighten deadlines, thresholds, and reporting requirements, arguing they are technically or scientifically unfeasible. The contribution, dated 22 October 2024, was published by the Council on 13 July 2026.
France firmly opposes reducing the transposition deadline to six months for new priority substances listed in Annex I (amendment 142), calling it operationally unfeasible, especially for PFAS, and wants to revert to the COREPER-approved wording. It also opposes annual raw data reporting (amendment 66) and intermediate programme-of-measures reporting (amendments 74, 76), supporting data provision every three years instead.
On microplastics, France considers a binding 18-month deadline for developing a monitoring method (amendments 86, 127) as not receivable due to technical development time. For PFAS, it supports publishing a technical guide for total analysis (amendments 101, 120) but opposes giving the Commission power to adopt threshold values via delegated acts (amendments 145, 153).
France considers all amendments introducing ecological status criteria for groundwater (amendments 80, 92) as not receivable due to insufficient scientific knowledge. It also opposes setting groundwater environmental quality standards at ten times lower than surface water values (amendment 81), calling it technically unfeasible for many substances.
On pharmaceuticals, France opposes amendments 146 and 147 that would divide Commission-proposed thresholds for carbamazepine and total pharmaceuticals by ten, citing no scientific basis. Similarly, it opposes amendments 144 and 148 halving Commission-proposed thresholds for pesticide active substances and non-relevant metabolites.
France partially supports amendment 121 requiring the Commission to publish a monitoring methods guide for bisphenols within two years, but opposes delegated acts for setting thresholds. It partially supports amendment 125 on effect-based monitoring reliability reports, but requests adoption via implementing acts to allow Member State consultation.
On extended producer responsibility, France does not take a position yet but requests Member States be involved in drafting the Commission's impact study terms of reference and that financial impacts on businesses be studied in detail.
The comments broadly support the COREPER compromise, opposing tighter deadlines and thresholds considered technically or scientifically unfeasible, and insisting on Member State involvement in delegated acts and impact studies. The file now returns to the Council for further negotiation with the European Parliament.