Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-28-Speech-4-036"

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"en.20050428.5.4-036"2
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"Mr President, everyone agrees with the objectives of this proposed directive. Differences exist as to how we are going to achieve those objectives: the optimist in me says we are almost halfway there. Groundwater is a major national resource. In Ireland groundwater and aquifers provide one quarter of our drinking water. Monitoring of Irish groundwater by the Environmental Protection Agency shows that there is no widespread contamination of individual aquifers. Most samples taken by the agency reflected unpolluted conditions. This is as it should be and it is good news, but we need vigilance. We need uniform measurement techniques across the EU, but we do not need common threshold values other than for nitrates and pesticides. Soil and subsoil types are important considerations in characterising the vulnerability of aquifers to contamination. These vary considerably throughout the Union. Equally, however, allowing for different threshold values in Member States to take account of these local natural conditions must not lead to unacceptable differences in the protection level or distortions in competition and trade. As we have already heard, experience with the Nitrates Directive has not been good and it should guide us in how we frame the groundwater directive. The Nitrates Directive fails to take account of climate or soil conditions in Member States. It prescribes a very rigid regime of farming by dates: not exactly as nature intended. It may well do more harm than good. The debacle over nitrates does little to endear the Commission to EU citizens. A similar fate must not befall the groundwater directive."@en1
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