Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-07-Speech-4-069"
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"en.20000907.2.4-069"2
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".
With its communication "Pricing policies for enhancing the sustainability of water resources", the European Commission is seeking to harmonise and give practical form to the economic provisions of the EC framework directive on water resources. The Commission's proposal to monitor observance of the break-even principle by means of price surveillance is aimed at those EU Member States that still heavily subsidise their water industries. In contrast, in Germany the break-even principle is already being implemented, as is monitoring of unfair practices by the cartel office and by local authorities. Against this background, the framework directive on water resources and the Commission proposal on water pricing should not be used to create further layers of bureaucratic supervision in Germany.
Furthermore, the provisions on the charging of environmental and resource costs associated with water use are aimed at those Member States that still make excessive use of and pollute their water resources, and therefore not at Germany, where exceptional efforts are already being made in this respect. The provisions of the framework directive on this point do not, therefore, provide any grounds for introducing a universal water or sewage tax in Germany, for example.
In view of the non-binding nature of the economic provisions of the framework directive on water resources and the Commission communication, there is a danger that there will be a considerable delay in implementing these provisions in the countries actually being targeted, if they are, in fact, implemented there at all. If, as has already been the case with the transposition of other directives, Germany, the ‘model pupil’, goes its own way, this would heighten the distortions in competition between the national water industries in the EU still further, thus running counter to the aim of the directive, which is to create a uniform framework for Europe's water industry. Germany has to learn to implement EU provisions in accordance with the objectives of the directive, not as individual
would like. With the EU framework directive on water resources we will once again see individual countries going their own way."@en1
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