Differences and tensions have emerged across Europe about the future of EU environmental targets under the Water Framework Directive, the major piece of legislation which impacts on the water sector, according to Water UK.
The organisation that represents UK water companies at UK and EU level was commenting after the European Commission recently convened a wide range of stakeholders, including water companies, to discuss the current state and future of targets under the WFD.
The message from the Commission was that while a lot of good progress has been made, all member states are well short of meeting the WFD targets required by 2015.
However, the debate at times became polarised between groups continuing to push for faster environmental performance and others, such as water and sewerage providers concerned about where the money will come from to pay the extra associated costs.
Another theme that emerged was that the 'one out all out' rule (that a water body has to achieve all the measures to achieve good status - failing on just one is the same as failing on all) is not driving environmental best practice. While water quality is improving, this is not reflected in the statistics.
The Commission made it clear at the conference that it expects member states to be rigorous in applying the 'polluter-pays' principle, particularly with regard to agricultural and other diffuse pollution. Some of those speaking at the conference told the Commission the Common Agricultural Policy and WFD should be better aligned.
Water UK’s Briefing Paper on the Directive published in June last year states:
"Whilst protecting vulnerable eco-systems is vitally important, a balance needs to be struck between environmental costs and costs to water customers, particularly when measures to protect the environment are not backed by comprehensive data supporting the case.. …
"We would propose that the Commission supports adherence to sensible disproportionate cost and technical infeasibility tests, while potentiallyextending the number of cycles before alternative objectives or lower targets can be set when economics is the root cause."
Click here to download the Water UK Briefing in full.
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