Brussels, 12/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Mission accomplished - the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) Right2Water, aimed at promoting the universal right to drinking water and at combating the privatisation of water resources, has collected more than one million signatures, the organisers, which include European Federation of Public Service Unions, Public Services International, Acqua Publica, European Trade Union Confederation, European Environment Bureau, and European Anti-Poverty Network, announced on 11 February.
Arguing that “water is a public good, not a commodity”, the above organisations launched a petition calling on the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation, and excluding the management of water resources from internal market rules and water provision services from liberalisation. This European Citizens' Initiative, which could be the first to reach the required number of signatures, is based on the power given by the Treaty of Lisbon to at least one million citizens from at least one quarter of EU member states to invite the Commission to present proposals for legal action in fields that fall within its competence.
Although the threshold of one million signatures has already been reached, the organisers have nonetheless decided to continue the campaign in order to collect two million signatures by the month of September this year, before formally presenting the initiative to the Commission. In line with the treaty, the Commission will then have three months in which to examine the petition and decide what measures to adopt. In the meantime, the initiative could also be presented to the European Parliament. The chairperson of the petitions committee has already stated that she is willing to call a meeting in Brussels with the organisers. (FG/transl.jl)