Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the 'Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on European Community Water Policy` (97/C 34/07)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on European Community Water Policy (COM(96)59 final);

Having regard to its decision, under the fourth paragraph of Article 198c of the EC Treaty, to deliver an Opinion on this matter and to instruct Commission 5 - Land-use Planning, Environment and Energy - to carry out the preparatory work;

Having regard to the Commission 5 Draft Opinion, adopted on 27 June 1996 (Rapporteur: Mr Henning Tellerup) (CdR 186/96 rev.),

unanimously adopted the following Opinion at its 14th Plenary Session on 18 and 19 September 1996 (meeting of 19 September).

Water and Water policy

1. The Communication sets out the objectives, challenges and principles of a sustainable water policy.

The COR welcomes the proposed overall approach to sustainable development in the water sector. It feels that local and regional authorities are particularly reliant on coherent water regulations. Water problems frequently in the first instance obstruct regional and local development.

The proposed overall approach will also involve harmonizing the provisions governing water policy with the over-arching environmental law provided by the new IPPC Directive.

Sustainable development - four objectives

2. In its policy paper, the Commission aims to achieve sustainable development by setting the following four objectives:

- a secure supply of drinking water should be provided;

- water resources for other economic needs (e.g. industry, agriculture, fisheries, transport, power generation and recreational activities) should be ensured;

- the quality and quantity of water resources should normally be sufficient to protect and sustain the good ecological state of the aquatic environment;

- water should be managed so as to prevent or reduce the adverse impact of floods and minimise the impact of droughts.

The Commission regards the third objective, i.e. environmental protection, as particularly vulnerable and in need of special attention.

3. The COR endorses the need to ensure that water meets these objectives. It also agrees with the Commission's view that the third of these four objectives for sustainable development aims is particularly vulnerable and requires attention.

The COR is bound to draw attention to the long-term challenges to sustainability and the need for an integrated strategic approach to the relationship between growth, water and the environment.

4. Here the COR assumes that the objectives are not listed in order of priority. As the Commission comments, all four objectives are not always mutually compatible. In such situations, the COR feels that the subsidiarity principle must be respected so that local and regional concerns determine the priorities finally decided on.

5. The COR would urge the Commission to ensure that a holistic approach is adopted to water quality, embracing the environmental aspects of water quality, land-use planning, the use of existing Community funds and the social effects of drought and floods.

6. The COR calls for a continuous assessment and update of water policy and its implementation, for instance in connection with the Commission's initiatives as a whole.

7. Here the COR recommends stepping up cooperation with the regional and local representatives competent in matters concerning the impact of water conditions on the regional and local environment.

Challenges

8. In its policy paper the Commission lists the key challenges to be met in order to attain the above four objectives: pollution (including point source pollution, diffuse source pollution, accidental pollution, acidification and eutrophication), water shortages and other adverse anthropogenic influences.

9. The COR would point out that the specified challenges are essentially ones with a direct influence on the water cycle. In this connection, it would draw the Commission's attention to include among the challenges relating to protection of the aquatic environment other factors with an indirect influence on water, e.g. aid measures affecting forms of production, including farming methods with an impact on the aquatic environment.

The principles of European Community water policy

10. The Commission's Communication has listed the principles underlying the attainment of sustainable development as those set out in Article 130r of the Treaty and provided a non-authoritative commentary on how each principle is applicable to water policy.

These principles are: a high level of protection, the precautionary principle, preventive action, damage to be rectified at source, the 'polluter pays` principle, integration of water policy into the various sectoral policies, optimum use of available scientific and technical data, respect for the variability of environmental conditions in the regions of the Community, costs/benefits (ensuring a reasonable balance between the proposed measures and their environmental consequences); the economic and social development of the Community as a whole and the balanced development of its regions, international cooperation and the subsidiarity principle.

11. The COR notes the Commission's interpretation of Article l30r of the Treaty and would stress the need to prioritize the subsidiarity principle when framing water policy.

The COR takes the view that (a) the Framework Water Directive should be introduced under a central procedure based on Articles 130s(1) and (2) and (b) that Article 130s(2) should apply in the case of the management of water resources.

Specific issues

12. In scrutinizing the above principles, the Commission Communication looked at the following broader issues: emission limit values and environmental quality objectives; designation of 'zones`; water quantity; monitoring requirements; reporting obligations; transparency, public participation and accountability; integrated water resource management and river basin management.

13. The COR is pleased to see that the Commission, in shaping water policy, has endeavoured to make the Treaty's principles operational.

Emission Limit Values and Environmental Quality Objectives

14. The Committee of the Regions agrees with the European Commission that these two approaches need to be linked.

The best available technology should be used to establish emission limit values. The initial aim should be to ensure that uniform standards for water use are applied throughout the Community using state-of-the-art technology, without reference to water quality. Complementary, high-level water quality objectives may then be needed, taking account of water-use requirements. The Committee feels that the stricter of the two criteria should be applied in authorizing discharges. Cost-benefit arguments must not be allowed to soften emission limit values or sanction the introduction of dangerous substances where water quality is high.

15. The COR supports an approach whereby the future Framework Directive would determine the criteria to be used for the establishment of parameters and values rather than these parameters and values being specified directly in the Directive. However, it is important for governments and regions to receive support in this task.

The COR requests the Commission, in its discussions on the Framework Directive, to endeavour to ensure that the question of effluent from a variety of sources is addressed. Special emphasis needs to be placed in this respect on the EU-wide introduction of environmentally-friendly practices in agriculture, and on the establishment of strict rules governing authorization of the use of substances which may jeopardize water quality.

The COR would also request the Commission, in its discussions on the Framework Directive, to see to it that the Directive includes provisions for dealing with substances which may jeopardize water quality. These provisions must seek to ensure that enterprises using these substances do not contaminate or otherwise damage bodies of water.

Designation of 'zones`

16. In the COR's view, the designation, where appropriate, of 'zones` can help in securing the subsidiarity principle. It advocates coordination wherever possible, with the designation of other 'zones` since the number is already hard to keep track of. There is a danger that different levels of protection will occur in individual zones, thus exerting a downward pressure on the objectives set at local and regional level and hence posing a risk of dumping. The COR thus supports the establishment of minimal common standards.

Such provisions should not, however, lead to requests being made by local and regional authorities for compensation in cases where authorizations have already been granted.

Water quantity

17. The COR agrees that water quantity management frequently has transboundary environmental consequences.

18. However, the COR would point out that these consequences can include drought and floods, which can cause even greater damage in human and economic terms. Here it would recommend a broader interpretation of environmental consequences to encompass the above effects, and not solely the ecological quality of water.

Monitoring requirements

19. The COR endorses the move to streamline monitoring requirements to avoid duplication or contradictory requirements and the aim of combining them in a new Framework Directive. It also agrees that coordination is needed on a river basin basis.

20. The Committee of the Regions does not share the Commission's view that more effective Community checks are needed in some areas. The regional and local authorities are equal to the task falling to them, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, of effectively monitoring implementation in the framework of existing administrative structures. Apart from reports, no further checks by the European Commission are needed. However, in the light of varying administrative structures across the EU it is recognized that there is a need for coordination of monitoring at European, national and regional levels.

Reporting obligations

21. The planned rationalization of supervisory requirements should be accompanied by revision of the existing reporting requirements, with the aim of reducing the size and frequency of reports. Future legislation should impose reporting requirements only to the extent that they are absolutely necessary.

Transparency, public participation and accountability

22. The COR agrees that the general public should have the right to know the results of environmental monitoring and that this information should be presented to them in an intelligible form.

23. The COR regards the Commission's publication of this water policy paper as a good example of transparency in environmental protection policy and would encourage the Commission to ensure such openness in its work in general.

Integrated water resource management

24. The COR welcomes the desire for integrated programmes covering all EC measures and measures arising out of the Member States' legislation in respect of their national waters This could promote transparency, public participation and accountability in the implementation of measures and reveal the need for further Community or other initiatives.

25. In this context there is a need for integrated management of water resources, based on the unit of the river basin and on the water cycle.

River basin management

26. Similarly, the COR's viewpoint on the scope for integrated management will depend on the definition, approach adopted and regional involvement.

27. The Commission's observations on a river basin approach to water management are interesting. The COR supports a number of its aims for coordination in this sphere.

The COR would point out that these coordination aims are not only necessary within the same river basin, but also between nearby basins (e.g. interconnection of basins facing a shortage with basins that have excess capacity).

In the COR's view, however, the river basin approach to water management should not be laid down by law. This would make it a very onerous process, as a consequence of which it might have only a minor impact.

The COR is opposed to 'European-level` management of water resources.

28. Here the COR would point out that the Member States' decentralized administrative structures and authorities were not - and should not be - set up with the idea of each authority providing a single service. Administrative structures must guarantee overall social development on an inter-sectoral basis so that, for instance, account can be taken of the interaction with socio-economic development when framing a policy in the individual administrative areas.

29. The COR would impress on the Commission that the individual Member States' administrative structures cannot be regulated through directives.

Integrated water management plans

30. The COR agrees with the overall approach, advocating an overall blueprint for the Member States' water resources.

31. However, it does not consider that such planning makes it unnecessary to establish Community standards for protection of the water cycle (e.g. regulation of production, water-related products, consumption and pollution). Here the COR would point to the need for minimum Community standards to protect water.

32. The COR welcomes the idea of including water quantity in integrated planning. It hopes that this move will encourage a more comprehensive approach to water resource administration.

33. The COR endorses the call for:

- integration between water resource management and protection of the natural ecological state and functioning of the aquatic environment;

- integration between water quality and water quantity management, including provisions for the establishment of a water abstraction licensing system;

- integration of surface water management, including coastal waters;

- integration of measures, such as emission controls, with environmental objectives.

Such integration may also be conducive to a more transparent water policy.

34. Should the proposed Framework Directive lay down procedural requirements, the COR would urge the Commission to provide for joint participation by the regions in the relevant integrated water management planning. They are the ones to shoulder the consequences of water policy and integrated water management planning.

Streamlining of rules

35. The COR agrees with the need for cooperation and coordination of existing water regulations and welcomes this proposal, along with the move to absorb the Ecological Quality of Water proposal into a Framework Water Directive. It is important to work on the basis of a common blueprint in the water sector.

36. The COR observes that it is planned to consolidate the Surface Water Directive, the Fish Water Directive, the Shellfish Water Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the proposed Ecological Quality of Water Directive.

37. At the same time the Commission states that the other water directives will largely be unaffected by this proposal since the Commission anyway wishes to consider the possibility of transposing a number of their definitions and monitoring requirements along with other relevant elements into the Framework Directive.

38. The COR supports the Commission's plans to coordinate definitions, monitoring requirements, etc. However, it would urge the Commission, wherever possible - and preferably to a greater extent than it currently proposes - to embark on the simplification of regulations and coordination of Community legislation in the water sector.

Brussels, 19 September 1996.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Regions

Pasqual MARAGALL i MIRA