Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-196"
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"en.20030513.10.2-196"2
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". – Firstly, as regards drinking water in developing countries, the Commission proposed in its communication on water management in developing countries that priority should be given to ensuring a supply to every human being – especially the poorest – of sufficient drinking water of good quality and of adequate means of waste disposal, with the general objective of reducing poverty and improving people's health and quality of life. This focus on access to safe water and sanitation was further reinforced in the context of the World Summit on Sustainable Development with the launch of the EU Water Initiative and the signature of the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership on Water Affairs and Sanitation.
After Johannesburg we started to concentrate on a long-term effort to translate these political commitments into action on the ground and, for sewerage, action under the ground. We are engaged in a dialogue to anchor the process at country level. The core of this action is to catalyse and support the engagement of all partners at the local, national and regional levels, from central and local governments to civil society users and private professional actors, reflecting the multi-stakeholder partnership approach under the Water Initiative. A key objective is to focus on the millennium development goals and the targets for access to water and sanitation for the poor. We negotiated this in Johannesburg and we are now trying to tackle the problem.
The Commission is also exploring the opportunities to increase financial support for these objectives, including the possible creation of a specific water fund using development aid as a catalyst to attract other financial resources in response to the countries' prioritisation of water in their poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies. This proposal by the Commission is presented in the recent communication on the establishment of an EU water fund.
Secondly, concerning drinking water in industrialised countries, the European Union started more than 20 years ago to take steps to secure drinking water quality. The Drinking Water Directive of 1980 established quality standards for drinking water as well as regular monitoring obligations, thus ensuring a high level of protection throughout the Union. In 1998 the Drinking Water Directive was amended to check the parameters and related values and, where necessary, tighten them up and ensure greater transparency and more information to citizens.
In order to comprehensively protect water resources, the European Union has recently thoroughly restructured its water protection policy by adopting the Water Framework Directive: protection of all waters, rivers, lakes, ground waters and coastal waters, establishing a binding obligation to achieve or maintain good quality for all those waters by 2015 at the latest; ensuring a broad participation of citizens, stake-holders, NGOs when developing the necessary protection measures; and underpinning the environmental objective by economic instruments such as economic analysis and water pricing, reflecting cost recovery and thus promoting the wise use of water and the protection of our water resources.
Environmental policy in the field of water is complicated and supported by targeted efforts in research policy, where the Sixth Framework Programme is devoting considerable effort and budget to the issue of water resources and their protection, and in regional policy both for the existing Member States by instruments such as the structural and cohesion funds and in candidate countries by instruments like ISPA and Phare."@en1
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