Big Pharma versus the EU: who should pay for urban wastewater treatment?
The pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries have gone to the EU's court to challenge a directive that requires them to finance at least 80% of urban wastewater treatment.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/27/big-pharma-versus-the-eu-who-should-pay-for-urban-wastewater-treatment
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The pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries have gone to the EU's court to challenge a directive that requires them to finance at least 80% of urban wastewater treatment.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/27/big-pharma-versus-the-eu-who-should-pay-for-urban-wastewater-treatment
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00The pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries have taken their case against the Urban Wastewater
00:12Treatment Directive to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
00:16The directive, which came into force on the 1st of January, requires producers of medicines
00:20and cosmetics to finance at least 80% of the treatment required to eliminate micropollutants
00:26from urban wastewater.
00:28In accordance with the Polluter Pays Principle.
00:31These micropollutants that come out from the effluent from the wastewater treatment plants,
00:37analysis has shown that more than 90% actually are originating from pharmaceuticals and cosmetic
00:44products.
00:45And then we believe it's a fair principle that 80% of the costs for removing this out
00:54of the wastewater, that that is going to be built by those who are generating these costs.
01:03But the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors believe that the burden should be more evenly
01:08shared.
01:09We support absolutely paying our fair share of the pollution that we provide, but it's
01:14the fair share.
01:15And this is really what we're after.
01:16We're trying to understand, since we couldn't get the data from the European Commission
01:19and the methodology on which the decision was based, we're trying to find out who the
01:23different polluters are and make sure that this important directive is set up on the
01:28right principles and that all the actors are involved, not only to pay their fair share,
01:32but also to make sure they're incentivized to make more sustainable products in the future.
01:38The Commission estimates the cost of treatment at 1.2 billion euros a year.
01:43While some claim this is but a drop in the ocean compared to the turnover of the pharmaceutical
01:47sector, Medicines for Europe believes that this directive jeopardizes the accessibility
01:52and affordability of medication.
01:56We think this is really disproportionate because it has a very, very negative impact on access
02:02to medicines.
02:04We've actually studied how this will impact the medicines, so we've looked at how it will
02:09increase the cost of medicines.
02:11And so, for example, for diabetes medicine metformin, which is very commonly used for
02:16diabetes, it would increase the cost by 900 percent according to the current spending
02:22in Europe.
02:23In total, 16 cases have been brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union.