Brussels, 21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - To mark World Water Day 2016, the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), which initiated the citizens' initiative “Right2Water” in 2014, is organising a demonstration calling on the European Commission to propose legislation that will implement the human right to water and sanitation once and for all.
In the early afternoon, the Schuman roundabout will be taken over by EPSU, MEPs and campaigners calling on the European institutions and member states to: - guarantee that all citizens can enjoy the right to water and sanitation; - ensure that water supply and management are excluded from internal market rules and commercialisation; - and, lastly, step up efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.
Although the Right2Water citizens' initiative enjoyed great success in gathering 1,884,790 signatures in total and won the support of the European Parliament on 8 September 2015, the European Commission has responded cautiously, opening a consultation - an “unambitious communication”, according to EPSU - in 2014, which has been followed by two years of silence and no concrete legislative measure (see EUROPE 11384).
EPSU General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan takes the Commission to task. “Water is our most precious life source, yet for hundreds of millions of people it still remains out of reach - including Europe. How many more people must suffer before the European Commission finally takes action on this vital value? We have no time left to lose”, he says in a press release. (Original vertsion in French by Maëlle Didion, stag)