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1. By 1 January 2028, Member States shall establish a national implementation programme for this Directive. Those programmes shall include:

(a) an assessment of the level of implementation of Articles 3 to 8;

(b) the identification and planning of investments required to implement this Directive for each agglomeration, including an indicative financial estimation and when available an estimation of the financial contribution from the producer responsibility organisations established in accordance with Article 10, and a prioritisation of those investments related to the size of the agglomeration and the level of environmental impact of discharges of untreated urban wastewater and related risks for the environment or human health;

(c) an estimate of investments needed to renew, upgrade or replace existing urban wastewater infrastructure, including collecting systems, based on depreciation rates, and technical and operational conditions, with the aim of preventing possible leakage, infiltration and misconnected inflow into the collecting systems, and using, where appropriate, digital instruments;

(d) the identification, or at least an indication, of potential sources of public financing, when needed to complement user charges;

(e) any information required under Articles 6(3) and 7(4) where applicable. Member States may continue using the available Union funding for the implementation of this Directive, in order to ensure that all citizens benefit equally from efficient collection and treatment of urban wastewater. Member States may equally exchange best practices on how to improve absorption of Union funds.

Where a Member State establishes, during the implementation of its national implementation programme, that due to the necessity to preserve cultural heritage it is not possible to respect the deadline referred to in Article 3(2) or the deadline referred to in Article 6(3)or both in specific areas, that Member State shall update its national implementation programme. That update shall contain a list of the agglomerations with the areas concerned, a detailed justification demonstrating that the construction of the required infrastructure is particularly difficult due to the necessity to preserve cultural heritage, and an adjusted timeline to finalise the required infrastructure in those areas. Extensions of the deadlines referred to in Article 3(2) and Article 6(3) shall be area-specific and kept as short as possible, and shall not exceed 8 years. The updated national implementation programme shall be submitted to the Commission by 31 December of the year of that update.

2. By 1 January 2028, Member States shall submit to the Commission their national implementation programmes, except where they demonstrate, on the basis of the monitoring results referred to in Article 21, that they are in compliance with Articles 3 to 8.

3. Member States shall update their national implementation programmes at least every 6 years. They shall submit them to the Commission by 31 December of the year of the update, except where they can demonstrate that they are in compliance with Articles 3 to 8.

4. The Commission is empowered to adopt implementing acts in order to establish the methods and formats for submission of the national implementation programmes. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 28(2).