Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-28-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20050428.5.4-010"2
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".
Mr President, I should like to start by thanking the European Parliament, and especially the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the rapporteur, Mrs Klaß, for their contribution to this report at first reading. Groundwater is an important resource, which is used for drinking water, and by industry and agriculture. It also has an important environmental value, given that it interacts with surface water and wetlands and, as such, forms an important part of the water cycle, which needs protection. The protection of groundwater from pollution has been the subject of Community legislation since as far back as 1980; most recently, in the Water Framework Directive passed in 2000. Nonetheless, there are still some gaps. There are no clear criteria for defining targets for the environmental quality of groundwater; more importantly, there are no good chemical status targets. In addition, special measures are needed to prevent and control the pollution of groundwater. This was acknowledged when the Water Framework Directive was approved, article 17 of which calls on the Commission to submit proposals to address the relevant requirements.
Within this framework, and following extensive consultations with the interested parties, the Commission submitted the proposal being debated today, which includes the main following elements:
a compliance procedure for assessing good groundwater chemical status, in order to limit the number of pollutants, where Community standards already apply;
criteria for assessing the chemical status of groundwater on the basis of environmental quality standards, which need to be adopted by the Member States at the appropriate national, regional or local level, depending on variations in natural groundwater conditions, the pressures identified and the chemical substances connected with pollution;
criteria for determining deterioration in the quality of groundwater and for reversing pollution trends and
measures to prevent or limit the direct and, more importantly, the indirect discharge of dangerous substances into the groundwater.
The proposal contains clear specifications which will ensure that the environmental targets of the Water Framework Directive are met in respect of groundwater. Similarly, the proposal strikes a satisfactory balance between issues which need to be addressed at Community level and issues which should preferably be left in the hands of the Member States."@en1
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