On Tuesday 5 March, European Environment Ministers adopted a general approach (political agreement) on the proposal to recast the 1998 EU Directive on water for human consumption with the intention of updating water safety parameters and facilitating access to drinking water for all; this is in response to the Right2water citizens' initiative (see EUROPE 12123).
For the most part, the text aligns the parameters with those of the WHO in respect of substances such as lead and some endocrine disrupters (bisphenol A and beta-estradiol). It improves the transparency of information to be given to consumers about water supplies and leakage, but this information will not be mandatory. It also provides for the provision of drinking water in public places – leaving the choice of measures up to Member States – and minimum hygiene requirements for products and materials that come into contact with water.
The Romanian Minister of Water and Forests, Ioan Deneș, has welcomed this step forward in protecting human health and the environment and the right to access water. All ministers have paid tribute to the Romanian Presidency compromise – a “chiselled special agreement” that would have been “difficult to achieve without questioning the balance that has been found”, the minister stressed.
Austria voted against it. Estonia abstained, due to uncertainties related to the implementation and cost of the new provisions on minimum hygiene standards for materials and products coming into contact with water – the new Article 10a – in the absence of an impact study. The European Commission has reserved its final position, believing that the agreement reached does not allow the text to be implemented as it stands, while regretting the lower level of transparency of consumer information compared to the original proposal.
The agreement sets out the hygiene requirements for these products and materials and will be laid down by means of implementing acts. These would include: - European positive lists of compositions or starting substances authorised to be used for manufacturing of materials; - common methodologies for testing and accepting such substances or compositions; - procedures and methods for testing and accepting materials in their final form; - the procedure for applications to include or remove compositions from the European positive lists; - marking of products in contact with drinking water, indicating conformity with the drinking water directive.
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Karmenu Vella, has indicated that the Commission would have preferred a higher level of health protection and deplored the fact that Member States had “refused to accept common procedures for standardised testing of materials needed to facilitate their placing on the market, preferring a completely new ad hoc system that results in partial harmonisation”. A declaration was filed in the minutes to express these concerns put forward by the Commission.
“We still have a lot of work to do. My services will be at your disposal and at that of the future Parliament in order to reach an agreement. We must set up this system together, otherwise, it will not work”, the Commissioner concluded. Work will therefore continue on the technical level to ensure the future directive is operational. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)