Mr President, I would like to focus on four amendments made to the original proposal submitted by the European Parliament, which had the unanimous support of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy. The first of these amendments, Amendment No 3, relates to one of the major innovations in the Commission’s proposal, namely the management of European water resources using river basins and watercourses that irrigate the European Union’s territory. On this point, Parliament insists that the Commission take into account the fact that many watercourses and even rivers, such as the Tagus in southern Europe, the Rhine, for instance, in central Europe or the Oder, for example, in northern Europe, are border rivers which are the responsibility of one or more Member States but also of riparian States which are not Member States and, in particular, candidate countries. Parliament believes that it is crucial that these non-Member riparian States should be involved in the management process now rather than waiting until they join the EU, which is very likely but will inevitably not happen for some time. A second amendment, Amendment No 8, calls upon the Commission to promote the synchronisation of research and of the conclusions drawn within the framework of the two major mechanisms for combating water pollution that have already been implemented. The first mechanism is the OSPAR Convention, which focuses on maritime waters but also covers a considerable area of internal waters. The second mechanism, known as the COMMPS procedure, focuses, on the other hand, on internal waters but also covers a substantial area of maritime waters. In these circumstances, it is easy to understand that the situation could well become chaotic if the Commission does not provide the requested synchronisation. Lastly, the third amendment, Amendment No 11, expresses the desire that the Commission, whilst following the COMMPS procedure as a general rule, should not exclude the possibility of the Commission using methods of assessing the harmfulness of certain substances which have already been developed or used in other anti-pollution measures. For instance, measures which have already proven to be effective in systems developed for combating air pollution must be used or adapted for combating water pollution. I would like to make a final comment, which is to stress the extraordinarily far-reaching importance of the texts submitted for vote by Parliament. One of the reasons why Europe has shown exemplary development across the board, one of the reasons for this balanced development and for the high quality farming industry which has always accompanied Europe’s economic development is precisely the fact that Europe has always had inexhaustible – in that they are infinitely renewable – resources of the precious liquid which keeps us alive. Both the quality and the quantity of water resources are now at risk from senseless and rapidly increasing amounts of pollution, which has been virtually uncontrollable over the last few centuries. All Member States and all regions must take action in this area.

Political group: PSE