Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-17-Speech-2-348"
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"en.20060117.25.2-348"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I am much obliged to Mr Maaten for the good work he has done and for the negotiations conducted by the delegation from this House in the run-up to the third reading.
I should like to confine myself to a few of the medical aspects of the directive. Bathing water is not free from germs, but low in germs. In principle, bathing water should be of drinking-water quality, as many bathers and swimmers do end up drinking it. In southern Germany, for example, we have one of the largest drinking-water reservoirs in the whole of Europe in the shape of Lake Constance. It must be mentioned, however, that even drinking water is not completely free from germs, but only low in germs, and that many germs – albeit of varying pathogenicity – are present throughout our daily lives.
The degree of protection we have now achieved with this directive is not perfect, of course, but is an initial step in the right direction. After all, the limit values of 330 intestinal enterococchi for inland waters and 185 for coastal waters that have now been agreed – for the ‘sufficient’ category – represent a reduction in health risk to bathers from 12% to 8%, and ‘health risk’ does not necessarily mean illness. The same goes for
bacteria, with counts of 900 and 500 for the ‘sufficient’ and ‘excellent quality’ categories, respectively. In my view, standardised laboratory methods should be as much a matter of course as uniform sampling quality. The main concern as far as I am concerned should be that the public be informed sufficiently and in good time and that the ‘excellent quality’ designation be achieved in all our waters.
A further aim – subject to strict scientific provisos at first – must be to control the viral load of the waters. This is progressively gaining in importance: there has been a rapid increase in the number of people falling ill in Europe as a result of enteroviruses and noroviruses. If only for this reason, we can expect a further revision of the directive in the not-too-distant future. I support the directive."@en1
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