Opinion of the Commission pursuant to Article 251 (2) third sub-paragraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty, on the European Parliament’s amendments to the Council’s Common Position regarding the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the quality of bathing waters amending the proposal of the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty
Date: 2005-06-27
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: bathing water, environmental protection, environmental standard, quality of the environment

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 27.6.2005 
COM(2005) 277 final 

2002/0254 (COD) 

OPINION OF THE COMMISSION 

pursuant to Article 251 (2) third sub-paragraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty, on the 
European Parliament’s amendments to the Council’s Common Position regarding the 
proposal for a 

DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

concerning the quality of bathing waters 

AMENDING THE PROPOSAL OF THE COMMISSION  
pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty 

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2002/0254 (COD) 

OPINION OF THE COMMISSION 

pursuant to Article 251 (2) third sub-paragraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty, on the 
European Parliament’s amendments to the Council’s Common Position regarding the 
proposal for a 

DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

concerning the quality of bathing waters 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

PROCEDURE 

The proposal COM(2002) 581 final was transmitted to the European Parliament and 
the Council in accordance with the co-decision procedure provided for in Article 175 
(1) of the EC Treaty. 

The European Economic and Social Committee gave its opinion on 19th June 2003. 

The Committee of the Regions gave its opinion on 9th April 2003. 

The European Parliament gave its opinion at first reading on 21st October 2003. 

Following the opinion of the European Parliament and pursuant to Article 250(2) of 
the EC Treaty, the Commission adopted an amended proposal COM (2004) 245 final 
on 5th April 2004. 

Following the opinion of the European Parliament and pursuant to Article 250(2) of 
the EC Treaty, the Council adopted the Common Position formally on 20 December 
2004. The Commission’s Communication on the Common Position was adopted on 
4th January 2005 and the European Parliament adopted its position on second reading 
on 10th May 2005. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The  Commission’s  proposal  was  intended  to  replace  the  existing  bathing  water 
directive which was adopted in 1976. That directive, while been very successful in 
promoting  higher  standards  of  bathing  water,  is  considered  to  be  outmoded  and  to 
represent  the  state  of  technical  and  scientific  knowledge  in  the  mid-70s.  The 
Commission’s  proposal  increased  the  severity  of  the  mandatory  microbiological 
standards  for  Community  bathing  waters  and  updated  the  management  and 
monitoring regime. 

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2. 

COMMISSION COMMENTS 

2.1. 

General 

On 11th May 2005, the European Parliament adopted 26 of the 54 amendments that 
were  tabled.  Out  of  the  26  amendments  adopted,  the  Commission  can  accept  10 
amendments in full, 1 amendment in part and a further 3 amendments in principle. 12 
of the adopted amendments are not acceptable to the Commission. 

2.2. 

Detailed Comments 

2.2.1.  Amendments Accepted in Full  

Amendments  9,  17,  19,  21  and  33  concern  improvements  to  the  provision  of 
information  to  the  public  and  the  Commission  can  accept  them.  Amendment  2 
changes the text of recital 11 to include references to directives dealing with access 
to environmental information and public participation in the drawing up of plans and 
programmes  and  is  a  useful  clarification.  Amendments  13  and  26  bring  forward 
respectively the dates for developing beach profiles and for the entry into force of the 
directive. The Commission considers that these amendments are acceptable and will 
expedite  the  implementation.  Amendment  25  allows  the  technical  updating  of  the 
directive  to  include  viruses  as  well  as  bacterial  indicators.  Given  that  viral 
contamination  is  an  important  consideration  in  bathing  waters  and  that  the 
Commission is currently promoting research on this issue under the 6th Framework 
Programme,  this  is  a  constructive  addition  to  the  text.  Amendment  10  is  a  minor 
wording change to Article 5. 

2.2.2.  Amendments Accepted in Part  

Amendment 15 concerns the consultation and participation of interested parties in a 
number of the measures foreseen in the directive. The Commission can accept most 
of  the  text  as  proposed,  but  considers  that  Member  States  can  only  be  required  to 
create the conditions for interested parties to give their input to the process: Member 
States  may  not  be  able  to  identify  all  such  parties  and  they  certainly  cannot  oblige 
them to take part. 

2.2.3.  Amendments Accepted in Principle 

Amendments 16 and 22 concern the establishment by the Commission of an EU wide 
symbol (16) or system of symbols (22) for providing information to the public. The 
Commission can accept to develop standard symbols, but these should be restricted 
to providing information on the classification of the bathing water quality according 
to the directive and perhaps warnings in the case of short-term pollution incidents. 

Amendment  55  proposes  quality  standards  for 
the  classification  category 
“sufficient”,  which  are  considerably  more  stringent  than  those  in  the  Common 
Position.  While  the  standards  as  proposed  in  the  amendment  are  far  too  severe  to 
gain  the  necessary  support  in  the  Council,  a  certain  degree  of  tightening  up  of  the 
standards  is  one  possible  option  for  bridging  the  gap  between  the  two  institutions. 
The Commission can therefore accept the principle of this amendment in so much as 
it serves to develop an agreement between the Council and the Parliament. 

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2.2.4.  Amendments Not Accepted 

Amendments 1, 3 and 14 concern emergency planning provisions which do not need 
to  be  included  on  a  directive  dealing  with  bathing  water.  The  Common  Position 
already contains suitable provisions for dealing with short-term pollution events, but 
there is no need to extend the scope of the directive to include actions more properly 
covered within the framework of civil protection and disaster response. Amendments 
6  and  7  seek  to  advance  the  dates  for  compliance  with  the  quality  standards  in  the 
directive.  The  dates  established  in  the  Common  Position  are  aligned  with  the 
effective  date  for  achieving  good  status  under  the  Water  Framework  Directive 
(2000/60/EC) and this synchronisation was done deliberately  in order  to streamline 
the process of planning and investment. For this reason, the Commission supports the 
dates in the Common Position and cannot accept these amendments. Amendment 4 
seeks to introduce a new definition of short-term pollution which is ambiguous and 
difficult to implement and control. Accordingly, the Commission cannot accept this 
amendment.  Amendment  11  introduces  information  elements  which  are  already 
present in the Common Position (Article 12) and is therefore redundant. 

Amendment  20  requires  translations  of  information  in  English  and  French  to  be 
made available to the public. However, the local authorities are far better placed to 
decide  upon  the  appropriate  languages  to  be  used  and  the  Commission  does  not 
consider  it  appropriate  to  impose  a  language  regime  as  suggested.  Amendments 23 
and 24 impinge upon the Commission’s right of initiative and for that reason cannot 
be  accepted.  Amendment  34  allows  calculation  methods  to  be  used  in  cases  where 
water samples are not stored or processed correctly. This will simply encourage bad 
practice and is not acceptable. Amendment 36, seeks to limit the length of the time 
that the “sufficient” classification category remains in use to 8 years after the entry 
into force of the directive. As this would mean that the “sufficient” category would 
disappear  by  2013  and  the  date  for  compliance  with  the  quality  standards  is  2015, 
this amendment is not compatible with the rest of the text and cannot be accepted. 

2.3 

Amended Proposal 

Pursuant to Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty, the Commission amends its proposal as 
set out. 

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