Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-12-Speech-1-127"
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"en.20060612.18.1-127"2
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"Mr President, I should like to add my voice to the thanks that have been expressed to Mrs Klass, who has set out a very ambitious stall in pursuit of this important aim, despite having to swim against a fairly strong tide, of course, from within our own ranks.
I had, however, expected a more ambitious proposal from the Commission and the Council and in particular a clearer, more targeted and more enforceable common position. I do not believe that this common position of the Council does justice to Article 17 of the Water Framework Directive. Why? Because it ignores the fact that groundwater is an ecosystem in its own right. Moreover, the requirements it makes regarding the protection of groundwater are not geared to the conservation of groundwater in the most natural state possible. Let us bear in mind that people throughout most of the territory of Europe obtain their drinking water from groundwater reserves and that this water can still be extracted fresh from the source without any treatment. That is how it must stay, and indeed there is even a need to improve the situation.
Another main point of criticism is that the Member States are given wide discretionary powers, particularly with regard to the assessment of the chemical status of groundwater, to the specification of criteria for the reversal of growth in pollutant concentrations and to the definition of a starting point for the reversal of this trend. This naturally rules out the uniform implementation of the provisions of both the Water Framework Directive and the present daughter directive – with regard to the trend reversal, for example – from the outset. If the Member States already have to provide a full description of every substance as part of the measuring process – which is an extremely good requirement, in my view – we must surely see to it that Community or simply national quality standards are defined. Sampling procedures must be improved, and the wording of the instrument as a whole must be tightened in order to close loopholes that the Member States might exploit and to ensure that the whole directive is not watered down."@en1
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