17 Jul
2006 - Brussels, Belgium – The European Environmental
Bureau (EEB) and WWF, on behalf of 17 national
environmental organisations, have submitted a
complaint to the European Commission asking to
open an infringement procedure against eleven
EU Member States for failure to correctly apply
the EU Water Framework Directive. Environmental
NGOs say that if the ‘polluter pays’ principle
continues not to be applied, citizens will have
pay the whole bill and the main goal of the directive
– good ecological status of all European waters
by 2015 – will not be achieved.
The countries concerned by the
complaint are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Sweden
and The Netherlands.
The Water Framework Directive
requires EU countries to assess what proportion
of water service costs (abstraction and discharge,
dams, dykes, transfers), including environmental
damage and resource loss, are paid for by water
users (households, navigation, hydropower, industry
and agriculture among others). The Directive obliges
countries to adequately distribute those costs
using the "polluter pays" principle.
This principle provides essential incentives to
reduce environmental damage and generate the money
required to achieve the directive's environmental
objectives.
However, eleven Member States
have limited the economic appraisal to public
drinking water supply and waste water treatment
or collection, thus excluding infrastructures
such as dams, weirs and dykes serving hydropower,
navigation, agricultural irrigation and drainage
and flood defence. This leads to a situation where
many infrastructures already identified as a major
environmental problem, will be exempted from any
transparent economic assessment and citizens,
who already pay substantial water prices, could
be charged even higher prices to cover for the
damage caused by businesses.
“EU leaders have committed again
and again to promoting economic instruments in
order to tackle the decline of our natural resources,
but they don’t seem to bother and at least correctly
apply relevant laws. Most authorities exclude
water activities which are major environmental
problems and often heavily subsidised, from being
defined as ‘water services’ and consequently from
exposing their financial and environmental costs”,
said Stefan Scheuer, Policy Director at EEB.
The complaint refers to the
situation of some of the last rivers with outstanding
natural value in Europe, such as Vistula in Poland;
Danube in Germany, Austria and Hungary; Elbe in
Germany, Kemijoki in Finland and Shannon in Ireland.
“It is the first time that we
submit a complaint of such scale. Countries like
France and Latvia have shown that doing much better
is possible, so we expect the European Institutions
to act swiftly and do everything in their powers
to ensure the correct application of the directive”,
added Sergey Moroz, Water Policy Officer at WWF.
According to the EU Treaty,
the European Commission can open an infringement
procedure against EU Member States following a
complaint from citizens and NGOs.
Notes to the editors:
• This press release and related material is available
on www.panda.org/epo and www.eeb.org.
• The complaint is submitted by EEB and WWF on
behalf of 17 national environmental organisations:
UWD (Austrian Environmental Umbrella Association);
Wassernetz Niedersachsen/Bremen c/o BUND, Germany;
NABU, Germany; Bund Naturschutz in Bayern e.V.,
Germany; Grüng Liga e.V., Germany; WWF Hungary;
Stichting Reinwater, Netherlands; WWF Sweden;
Bond Beter Leefmilieu Vlaanderen v.z.w, Belgium;
Stichting Natuur en Milieu, Netherlands; Finnish
Association for the Conservation of Nature; WWF
Poland; Danish Society for Nature Conservation;
An Taisce - National Trust for Ireland; Freiburger
Arbeitskreis Wasser im BBU, Germany; Estonian
Green Movement; WWF France.
• The complaint refers to the following areas:
Vistula in Poland; Shannon in Ireland; the Danube
in Germany, Austria, Hungary; Elbe, Ems, Weser,
Middle and Upper Rhine, in Germany; Meuse and
Rhine Delta in the Netherlands; Sweden (all country
report); Scheldt in Belgium; Gulf of Finland;
Arhus Amdt water district in Denmark; East Estonia
Basin.
• The infringement procedure should be based on
the non-compliance with Article 5 of the Water
Framework Directive stating that “[…]Each Member
State shall ensure that for each river basin district
or for the portion of an international river basin
district falling within its territory […] an economic
analysis of water use is undertaken according
to the technical specifications set out in Annexes
[…] III […]”.
• Water services are defined in the Water Framework
Directive as: “all services which provide, for
households, public institutions or any economic
activity: abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment
and distribution of surface water or groundwater,
waste-water collection and treatment facilities
which subsequently discharge into surface water.”
• The Member States concerned by this complaint
have reported major environmental problems arising
from infrastructures and river maintenance works
excluded by the economic assessment – contributing
to about 50% of surface waters failing to achieve
a good ecological status as required by the Water
Framework Directive by 2015.
Stefan Scheuer.
