Brussels, 23/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just launched an online public consultation to see (with all the different stakeholders) whether improvements can be made to the European directive on the quality of drinking water (the drinking water directive 98/83/EC), in an effort to facilitate citizens' access to this resource and identify what possible areas need improvement.
The consultation is open until 15 September 2014 and is a concrete response to Right2Water, the first successful European citizens' initiative that demanded that water be recognised as a universal human right (see EUROPE 11045 and 11042).
Citizens, companies, the public authorities and NGOs wishing to take part are invited to answer an online questionnaire to indicate whether they believe access to drinking water is easy, reasonably priced and of an acceptable quality. They are also asked to identify threats to drinking water and say whether the drinking water directive standards are appropriate. Other questions involve monitoring and inspecting drinking water, consumer information, action to promote through European legislation in the event of non-respect of quality standards (in addition to corrective action demanded from member states), derogations and additional measures to take nationally and EU wide.
To complete this exercise, the Commission will soon be launching a dialogue with stakeholders regarding transparency in the water sector. The contributions received will guide the Commission in its reflection on opportunities and the most appropriate ways of implementing a possible revision to legislation to ensure the supply of excellent quality drinking water.
The public consultation is available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/DWSurvey . (AN)