The informal agreement reached on 19 December between Parliament and EU Council negotiators on the recast of the 1998 Drinking Water Directive was briefly presented to the Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) on Friday 20 December. "The reception has been positive. There should not be too many problems, but the analysis of the text will be done in January, at the earliest on 22 January, because technical adjustments still need to be made in early January", a European source said on 20 December.
In addition to strengthening water safety standards for human health, which will be aligned with WHO recommendations, the revised Directive intends to respond to the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) Right2water by improving access to water for all Europeans and information to consumers (see EUROPE 12394/9).
Improved access to water. It is now included in the directive, as the Parliament wanted. However, the compromise leaves the choice of means to the Member States without prescribing anything. Member States will have to promote access to free water in public establishments and will have the possibility to encourage the provision of free or low-cost water in restaurants.
Member States should also take measures to improve access to water for vulnerable groups such as refugees, nomadic communities, the homeless and minority cultures such as Roma and travellers. Possible measures could include the establishment of alternative water supply systems, the provision of water by tankers and the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for the camps, the text says.
Improved transparency. The provisionally agreed text provides for consumers to have access to online information at least once a year on the quality and pricing of tap water, the quantity consumed per household and a comparison with an average per household.
Large suppliers who produce more than 10,000 m3 of drinking water per day or who supply more than 50,000 people will have to inform their customers online, every year, about water leaks.
Initially, Member States felt that provisions on access to water did not belong in a Directive on tap water quality. It was the European Commission which, in the absence of having universal access to water and sanitation recognised as a human right in European law, had proposed to respond to the ECI through the revision of the 1998 Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)