|
Protecting our groundwater against pollution - European Parliament votes on new EU directive Specialist Press Release (EP/SP08/2006) - June 14th, 2006
SUMMARYThe European Parliament yesterday adopted its 2nd reading of a new EU directive aimed at protecting groundwater from pollution. "Groundwater is our most important natural resource. Yet over half of the EU's groundwater sources are polluted and once polluted, they can no longer be cleaned up," said Christa Klass, the MEP responsible for steering the legislation through Parliament. The text adopted by MEPs yesterday does not impose single standards for all countries, except for nitrates and pesticides, but does seek to harmonise methods for measuring potential pollutants. MEPs adopted amendments improving sampling methods. Where farming practices would need to change to comply with rules on nitrates and pesticides, MEPs suggest providing special aid through the rural development plans which will be drawn up under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy. For other substances - including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and sulphates - the directive leaves it up to each EU Member State to lay down limit values. These thresholds must be established by December 2008 at the latest. In all 43 amendments were adopted to the Common Position of the Council of Ministers. This was the European Parliament's second reading of the proposed Directive - each amendment therefore received at least 367 votes ie over half the total membership. Unless the Council of Ministers accepts all of the amendments adopted this week, the discussions will proceed to conciliation between Parliament and Council. The final agreed text would then return to Parliament for a 3rd reading later this year.
DEBATEExcerpts from Monday's debate (12 June 2006) in Strasbourg John Bowis (Conservative, London): Mr President, the Commissioner and our excellent rapporteur have both referred to the need for this measure: the precious resource that my colleague Mrs Klaß referred to; a resource that once polluted can take decades to recover. Therefore we are bringing a measure which is aimed to prevent that and to protect the groundwater which, as Mrs Klaß says, in parts of some countries provides a high proportion of drinking water. There are two keys. One is to ensure that we have consistency with other directives, in particular the Water Framework Directive. The Nitrates Directive has also been mentioned. The second is to clarify even now - and I fear it will have to come at conciliation - some of the issues: for example, in Amendment 22, the use of the words "aim to"… I am sure we need a stronger term, short of the impossible; and the current text in the groundwater directive which talks of 'taking all the appropriate measures deemed necessary to prevent', may be the answer. But we also need to ensure that the French and the English texts are the same. At the moment the English text says 'stop' and the French text says 'try to prevent'. These are the sort of issues that we shall need to look at as we take this forward.
Chris Davies (Liberal Democrat, North West): It is increasingly difficult to secure proper compliance with environmental legislation from Member States. I hope that is something the Commission will be raising on a regular and frequent basis in the Environment Council: naming and shaming. We no longer trust ministers to deliver what they say when they come to Brussels. We want legally binding requirements imposed on them, however difficult the enforcement machinery may be. I spent some of last week trying to fend off the alleged concerns of the pesticides industry - manufacturers of plant protection products - that this legislation, as amended by Parliament, would lead to the complete banning of pesticides. It struck me as rather odd. I always thought pesticides were intended to kill pests, not to get into groundwater, and, if applied in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, they should not get into groundwater. So I do not see that we have a problem there. The important thing for all of us and for the farming interests too, is to recognise that we all have an interest in preserving groundwater and the soil structure for the long term. Bad farmers might have difficulty in meeting some of the requirements of this kind of legislation, but we are on the side of the good farmers and the environment, not the bad farmers, and that is as it should be.
CONTACTS
LINKS
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This page is part of a frameset - click here to reload the index page of the frameset or here for the homepage of the website. |