Environmental campaigners have raised the alarm over a possible weakening of EU water quality standards as the 2027 deadline to meet strict pollution limits approaches.
Now that the most countries from European Union (EU)They are not going to meet the legal deadline to recover the health of its rivers and lakesbefore 2027los environmental groupsfriend that some take advantage of the update of the pollutant watch list to weaken the regulations center of the block water quality.
The European Comissionproposedin October 2022 a pollutant list update that Member States must maintain within strict limits in all surface and groundwater, to reflect growing concerns about harmful chemicals such as PFAS, the ubiquitous herbicide glyphosate, and pharmaceuticals.
However, in a document dated May 27 and consulted by ‘Euronews’, Belgium, which holds the current presidency of the EU Council, agrees with a previous suggestion by Spain to move the compliance deadline of new substances a 2039and proposes making rules more flexible in other areas, such as the requirement to avoid the “deterioration of the condition of a body of water.”
The levels of all listed substances must be kept within specific limits for a body of water to qualify for “good” ecological status, the minimum that governments must achieve throughout their territory by 2027 under the Framework Directive. of Water (DMA). But everything indicates that the EU is not far from it close to meeting this goal, set in 2020.
The compromise proposal, which national diplomats are scheduled to discuss at a meeting on June 12, appears to be influenced by a joint declaration distributed among delegations at the beginning of the year by the Netherlands, with the support of Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg.
The countries underline their agreement with “the general ambition of the WFD”, but argue that the non-deterioration rule is not clearly defined in legislation and, consequently, its application has to follow the rulings of the courts that have declared illegal even the temporary adverse impacts on water quality.
In a case brought by environmental group France Nature Environnement against national governments’ water management plans, the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2022 that compliance with the Directive must “take into account the temporary impactsin the short term and without lasting consequences, unless it is evident that said impacts have, by their nature, little impact on the state of the affected water masses.
Belgium appears to have picked up on the five countries’ concerns, proposing that a change in ecological quality status (‘EQS’) from ‘high’ to ‘good’ does not count as deterioration, while noting that A strict application of the court’s definition could increase bureaucracy and even “hinder” restoration work in which “pollutants are relocated within or between bodies of water without causing an overall increase in pollution.”
Los environmental groups they were shown alarmed by the apparent guidance of the Council of the EU. “By weakening EU rules that protect our waters, Member States are giving themselves more freedom to pollute and degrade water qualitywhich will harm our drinking and bathing waters as well as nature,” said Claire Baffert of WWF’s EU policy office in Brussels.
The National Institute of Public Health and Environment of the Netherlands reported last year that high levels of PFAS -called ‘forever chemicals’ because they do not decompose in the environment and accumulate in living tissues, in sea foam along the coast. Similar findings were also made in Belgium. The EU regulatory bodies are studying a proposal to ban these substances throughout the block.
Sara Johansson, water policy specialist at the European Environment Office, stated that this Pollution worsens drinking water shortage and causes the biodiversity loss: “This pollution, which exposes people to harmful chemicals, is so serious that even situations such as children playing on the beach or people eating fish are becoming a real danger to health.”
“This crisis must be addressed urgentlybut the Member states want to buy time by postponing necessary measures until the next decades, which will cost us, our health and the environment dearly,” Johansson told ‘Euronews’, explaining that the legal changes introduced by Belgium go beyond the Commission’s original proposal. review of the Water Framework Directive completed in 2019 concluded that the law was fit for purpose, with the main problem being its poor application.
The European Environment Agencyan EU body, warned in 2018 that just over a third of EU surface and groundwater met the minimum requirements for “good” ecological and chemical status. A follow-up report was expected this month, but the EU agency told Euronews the publication date was uncertain partly because the European Commission has yet to complete a review of new “watershed management plans” that Governments must submit under the directive.
He European Parliament, which adopted its position on the revision of the directive last September, wants to strengthen the rights of citizens to challenge government decisions, including those that may lead to a deterioration in water quality. Final negotiations on the new watch list can only begin once the EU Council finalizes its position.
