On Thursday 24 April, MEPs on the Parliament’s Committee on Environment discussed the reports published by the European Commission in early February (see EUROPE 13572/9) on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive, covering river basin district and flood risk management plans.
These reports revealed that “less than 40% of the European Union’s surface waters had achieved good ecological status and a quarter had achieved good chemical status”, said Veronica Manfredi of the European Commission’s DG Environment.
She said that agriculture, through unsustainable practices and the use of fertilisers and pesticides, as well as atmospheric pollution from fossil fuels, was among the main sources of water pollution.
The MEPs then disagreed on the solutions to be followed to achieve good ecological water status by 2027. Recalling that “water becomes food for us all”, Carmen Crespo Díaz (EPP, Spanish) urged MEPs not to “demonise” farmers and to give priority to new genomic practices.
In contrast, Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, German) felt that intensive agriculture and its waste represented “the biggest problem”. Regretting that there was “no longer any discussion of a ‘Green Deal’”, the German MEP said that the issue of food security was being used as an excuse “to continue intensive farming”.
Veronica Manfredi acknowledged that there were shortcomings in this area, but pointed out that intensive farming had been mentioned during the previous mandate, as part of the ‘European Green Deal’, and that the European Commission had “submitted a proposal to cover both poultry and pigs, which are responsible for nitrate pollution”. Similarly, the Commission had envisaged “covering cattle”, but “collectors decided not to cover these farms”. Greater coverage of intensive farming areas will now “make it possible to limit nitrate pollution”, informed the Commission. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)