EFPIA has filed an application before the General Court of the European Union to challenge the extended producer responsibility obligations of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD).  The industry is challenging the Directive to seek greater clarity on how the decision to include only two sectors to bear responsibility for Europe’s urban wastewater quaternary treatment aligns with the EU’s own polluter-pays principle. 

EFPIA believes that the obligations that the Directive imposes on producers of medicines run counter to key principles of EU Treaties: polluter-pays, proportionality and non-discrimination. They are also contrary to the requirement of legal certainty. 

EFPIA Director General Nathalie Moll said:  

“We are seeking legal clarity on the Directive, having tried, and failed, to gain clarity from the European Commission on the rationale to hold only pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries responsible for Europe’s water pollution, despite evidence to suggest that other sectors should be included.  

EFPIA and its members support the polluter-pays principle that all producers should be held accountable and bear the costs of water pollution based on the volume and hazardousness of the substances they are responsible for. The industry remains 100% committed to paying its fair share for cleaning up micro-pollutants resulting from the use of its medicines.”  

ENDS. 

Notes to editors 

1. EFPIA member companies have invested heavily financially in innovation to ensure that wastewater from pharmaceutical manufacturing is treated at source and does not enter the water system and to reduce pharmaceutical residues into the environment. The vast majority of pharmaceuticals in our water stem from patients being treated with medicines and those medicines passing through a persons’ system into wastewater, or through incorrect disposal of medicines (unused or expired medicines). 
2. EFPIA supports appropriate processes for proper disposal, jointly with other trade associations we have launched the #medsdisposal campaign to raise awareness on how to proper dispose unused or expired medicines across the European Union. Click here for more information https://medsdisposal.eu/about-us/
3. The EU polluter-pays principle is a core concept of EU environmental policy: those responsible for environmental damage should pay to cover the costs of the damage they cause. This applies to prevention of pollution, remediation, liability (criminal, civil and environmental liability) and the costs imposed on society of pollution that does happen. The financial contribution should be proportionate to the pollution caused.
4. The EU proportionality principle means that EU measures must be suitable to achieve the desired end, must be necessary to achieve the desired end, and must not impose a burden on the individual that is excessive in relation to the objective sought to be achieved (proportionality in the narrow sense).