European Union (Water Policy) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 52/2025).

The European Union (Water Policy) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 aim to further implement Directive 2000/60/EC, which establishes a framework for community action in water policy. The regulations focus on updating and maintaining water quality standards. They mandate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local authorities to review and update water mapping and analyses every six years. The regulations also introduce new articles to the principal regulations, emphasizing the identification and assessment of significant anthropogenic pressures on water bodies, including point and diffuse source pollution, water abstraction, and morphological alterations. Additionally, the regulations outline detailed monitoring requirements for surface waters, specifying the design and frequency of surveillance, operational, and investigative monitoring programs. The EPA is tasked with ensuring that monitoring programs provide a comprehensive overview of ecological and chemical status within each river basin. The regulations also include provisions for the interpretation and presentation of groundwater chemical status, requiring the aggregation of monitoring results and the creation of status maps. Finally, the regulations emphasize the need for additional monitoring in protected areas and drinking water abstraction points to meet specific legislative requirements.