Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of groundwater against pollution
Date: 2006-02-10
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, groundwater, pollution control measures, water pollution, water protection

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 10.2.2006 
COM(2006) 50 final 

2003/0210 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the protection of groundwater against pollution 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
2003/0210 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the protection of groundwater against pollution  

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1- 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2003)550 final – 2003/0210(COD): 

22 September 2003 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

31 March 2004 

Date of the opinion of the Committee of the Regions: 

12 February 2004 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

28 April 2005 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

22 June 2005 

23 January 2006 

2- 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

Groundwater  is  an  important  natural  resource,  which  is  mainly  used  for  drinking  water, 
industry  and  agriculture.  It  has  also  a  high  environmental  value  as  it  interacts  with  surface 
waters  and  wetlands,  and  thus  represents  a  key  part  of  the  water  cycle,  which  should  be 
protected. 

Preventing groundwater pollution has been the subject of Community legislation since 1980 
and, more recently, through the Water Framework Directive, which was adopted in 2000. 

However,  clear  criteria  regarding  the  definition  of  groundwater  environmental  quality 
objectives, and in particular good chemical status, are lacking. In addition, specific measures 
to prevent and control groundwater pollution are needed. This was recognised when the Water 
Framework Directive was agreed to the extent that Article 17 of that Directive requested the 
Commission to come forward with a proposal to address these needs. 

EN 

2 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
Against that background, and after extensive consultation with stakeholders, the Commission 
published  a  proposal  for  a  new  directive  concerning  the  protection  of  groundwater  against 
pollution in September 20031. This proposal contains the following main elements:  

•  a  compliance  regime  for  assessing  good  chemical  status  for  groundwater  for  a  limited 

number of pollutants where existing Community standards prevail; 

•  criteria  for  assessing  the  chemical  status  of  groundwater  based  on  environmental  quality 
standards,  which  have  to  be  established  by  Member  States  at  the  appropriate  level 
(national,  river  basin  or  groundwater  body),  depending  on  the  variations  in  natural 
groundwater conditions, identified pressures and related chemical substances; 

•  criteria for identifying significant upward trends in pollutant concentrations in groundwater 

and defining starting points for reversing these trends; 

•  measures  for  preventing  or  limiting  direct  and  indirect  inputs  of  pollutants  into 

groundwater. 

The proposal provides clear specifications that will ensure that the environmental objectives 
of the Water Framework Directive will be achieved with respect to groundwater. Equally, the 
proposal achieves the right balance between issues that need to be addressed at Community 
level and those that are best left to Member States. 

3- 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

3.1 

General comments 

In its amended proposal, the Commission accepted in full, in part or in principle 67 of the 89 
amendments  adopted  by  the  European  Parliament  in  its  first  reading.  54  amendments  have 
now been incorporated, either verbatim or in spirit, in the common position. 

The  Commission  accepted  all  the  amendments  which  sought  to  clarify  the  scope  of  the 
proposal, in particular those regarding the compliance regime related to the groundwater good 
chemical  status.  The  Commission  did  not  accept  amendments  which  repeated  Water 
Framework Directive provisions and referred to groundwater ecosystems. 

The  Council  has  incorporated  key  Parliamentary  amendments  related  to  good  groundwater 
chemical  status  compliance,  identification  and  reversal  of  pollution  trends  as  well  as 
exemptions linked to provisions to prevent or limit pollutant inputs. 

The  Commission  considers  that  the  Common  Position  adopted  by  qualified  majority  on 
8.12.2005  does  not  in  general  alter  the  approach  or  aims  of  the  Proposal  and  can  thus 
generally support it as it stands. 

1 

COM(2003) 550 final, 19.9.2003 

EN 

3 

   EN 

 
                                                 
3.2 

Detailed comments 

3.2.1 

Parliamentary amendments accepted by the Commission and incorporated in full, in 
part or in principle in the common position 

Amendments 2, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 39, 42, 47, 
48,  55,  57,  58,  59,  63,  65,  88,  89  and  90  have  been  incorporated  to  varying  degrees.  They 
provide  clarity  regarding  criteria  for  assessing  good  groundwater  chemical  status  and  on 
‘prevent  or  limit’  provisions.  Amendment  60  had  been  accepted  by  the  Commission  on  the 
sole condition that a reference be made to the Nitrates Directive, which has been included in 
the Common Position; this in line with the spirit of Amendment 64. Part C of the Common 
Position basically covers Amendments 66, 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71, with the difference that the 
term  ‘threshold  values’  has  been  kept  by  the  Council  whereas  the  European  Parliament 
recommended to use a single term ‘groundwater quality standards’. Amendment 72 has also 
been taken into account. Finally, Amendments 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83 and 84 
concerning technical requirements for trend assessment and reversal are integrated in part or 
in  principle  in  the  Common  Position.  The  Council  has  decided  to  simplify  Annex  IV  by 
incorporating  general  provisions  regarding  trend  identification  and  reversal  requirements, 
instead of maintaining tables with common time series which might not be applicable for all 
groundwater situations. 

3.2.2 

Parliamentary amendments rejected by the Commission but incorporated in full, in 
part or in principle in the common position 

Amendment  18  was  rejected  by  the  Commission,  but  has  been  partly  incorporated  in  the 
common  position.  This  amendment  made  a  reference  to  ‘environmentally’  significant 
increases  of  concentrations  of  pollutants  in  groundwater.  The  Council  changed  the 
formulation which is now clearer in the new definition 3 of Article 2. Amendment 50 was also 
rejected but included in the Common Position as paragraph 4 of Article 6. 

3.2.3 

Parliamentary  amendments  rejected  by  the  Commission  and  the  Council  and  not 
incorporated in the common position 

Amendments 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 16, 21, 23, 27, 40, 49, 93, 51, 52, 54, 56, 62 and 80 were rejected 
by both institutions and not incorporated. These amendments repeated WFD provisions, e.g. 
concerning groundwater used as drinking water (3, 4, 62), groundwater quantitative issues (7, 
10  and  80),  references  to  human  or  eco-toxicological  criteria  (27),  or  they  added  new 
provisions  on  the  management  of  historically  contaminated  sites  (23,  93  and  49).  A  part  of 
Amendment 88 (on domestic effluent) was rejected. Prevention measures (51) and a provision 
on ‘polluter pays principle’ (52) were not retained, nor were specific provisions on spas and 
medicinal  water  sources  (54).  Amendment  56,  which  referred  to  INSPIRE2,  was  also  not 
incorporated.  Finally,  research  recommendations  were  considered  to  be  misplaced  in  the 
directive and the amendments 95 and 100 were hence not retained. 

3.2.4 

Parliamentary  amendments  accepted  in  full,  in  part  or  in  principle  by  the 
Commission but not incorporated in the common position 

Amendments  1,  8,  15,  22,  24,  25,  36,  37,  38,  41,  46  and  91  were  accepted  in  part  or  in 

2 

COM(2004) 516 final 

EN 

4 

   EN 

 
                                                 
principle  by  the  Commission  but  not  incorporated.  Some  of  these  amendments  concerned 
editorial changes such as the addition of the term ‘chemical’ to pollution throughout the text 
(1)  and  ‘resulting  from  the  impact  of  human  activity’  in  Article  5  (37);  others  were  more 
substantial,  e.g.  incorporation  of  a  new  recital  on  farming/forestry  practices  (8),  new 
definitions  on  ‘background  concentration’  (22)  and  ‘baseline  concentration’  (24,  38)  or 
reference to natural geogenically determined levels of pollutants (91), which would be useful 
and in line with the Common Position. The possible proposal for a directive amending Annex 
I  of  the  proposal  was  also  not  retained  (36).  A  new  article  on  measurement  methods  (as 
proposed  by  amendment  41)  was  not  incorporated,  but  would  be  consistent  with  a  related 
Common Position provision in Annex IV, paragraphs 1.2 (b) and (c) of the proposal. Finally, 
a  reference  to  measures  and  groundwater  monitoring  (46)  has  not  been  included  in  the 
Common Position. 

3.2.5 

Additional changes made by the Council to the Proposal 

In  Article  1,  the  last  paragraph  has  been  extended  to  include  a  reference  to  the  ‘prevent  or 
limit’ provision of the WFD, and incorporated as a separate paragraph 2. 

A  new  definition  of  ‘groundwater  quality  standard’  has  been  included  in  Article  2(1),  the 
‘threshold value’ now being linked to this definition (Article 2(2)). Former definitions 2 and 3 
(now 3 and 4) have been slightly modified by including a cross-reference to ‘environmental 
risk’ (definition 3) and changing ‘indirect discharges’ to ‘input’ (which covers both direct and 
indirect introduction of pollutant into groundwater). 

In  the  original  proposal,  Article  3  concerned  compliance  criteria  for  good  groundwater 
chemical  status,  which  was  followed  by  requirements  concerning  the  establishment  of 
threshold  values.  This  has  now  been  changed  by  consolidating  criteria  for  assessing 
groundwater  chemical  status  in  Article  3,  namely  ‘groundwater  quality  standards’  and 
‘threshold  values’,  and  including  requirements  on  the  establishment  of  the  latter  with 
additional  provisions  on  trans-boundary  groundwater  bodies.  The  date  at  which  threshold 
values  should  be  reported  has  also  been  changed  to  2008  from  2006  as  proposed  by  the 
Commission. 

Restructuring  Article  3  had  the  logical  consequence  that  all  elements  related  to  compliance 
are now incorporated in Article 4, including provisions that were originally included in Annex 
I  (footnote  22  in  particular),  and  providing  flexibility  to  the  ‘one  out  all  out  principle’  (one 
point  exceeding  the  standard  classifying  the  groundwater  body  as  being  in  poor  chemical 
status) with a risk-based approach. 

The  spirit  of  Article  5  remains  the  same  as  in  the  original  proposal,  but  it  now  includes 
provisions that were imported from the former Annex IV, thus making it more extensive. A 
new provision has been included concerning the reasons for the definition of starting points 
for trend reversal. 

Article 6 has also been substantially extended, covering provisions to ‘prevent or limit’ inputs 
of pollutants (instead of indirect discharges as in the original proposal). The pollutants whose 
input  is  to  be  prevented  or  limited  and  the  related  measures  are  clarified  in  Article  6(1).  A 
new provision on diffuse sources is included in Article 6(2). Finally, a series of exemptions, 
either  recalling  WFD  provisions,  imported  from  the  80/68/EEC  Directive,  or  highlighting 
allowable water management practices, have been incorporated in Article 6(3). 

EN 

5 

   EN 

 
Article 7 has been slightly modified in that it now refers to ‘any new authorisation procedure’ 
instead of ‘prior investigation and authorisations’. 

Article 8 remains basically unchanged. 

The  core  of  the  text  of  Article  9  is  also  unchanged,  but  the  implementation  date  has  been 
modified to 24 months instead of 18 months. 

The clarity of Annex I has been improved by changing the footnotes into separate paragraphs 
which clarify the scope and applicability of the groundwater quality standards. The comment 
in the right column of the table concerning nitrates has been extended to all activities falling 
within the scope of the Directive 91/676/EEC instead of only referring to nitrate-vulnerable 
zones. Finally, the value of 0.5 µg/l for ‘total pesticides’ has been included in the table. 

The  sequence  of  Annexes  II  and  III  has  been  modified.  Annex  II,  part  A,  now  concerns 
guidelines  for  the  establishment  of  threshold  values  (new  text,  which  is  in  line  with 
Amendment 65 of the European Parliament). Minimum lists of substances or ions related to 
threshold values are included in part B, splitting the tables (originally in Annex III) in three 
different categories, and specifying that threshold values linked to saline concentrations due to 
anthropogenic  activities  may  be  established  either  for  sulphate  or  chloride  or  for  electrical 
conductivity. Part C of the annex now includes the former Part B of Annex III with additional 
details which improve the text.  

Annex  III  now  concerns  the  assessment  of  groundwater  chemical  status  and  extends  the 
original text of the former Annex II with details and cross-references to Article 4. 

Finally,  Annex  IV  has  been  simplified  in  order  to  provide  general  requirements  rather  than 
specifications,  in  particular  time  series,  which  might  not  be  applicable  to  all  groundwater 
situations in Europe. In this respect, the tables of the original paragraphs 1.2(c) and 2.3 have 
been  deleted,  and  new  requirements  have  been  added  regarding  monitoring  frequencies  and 
locations.  

4- 

CONCLUSION 

The  changes  introduced  by  the  Council  help  to  clarify  the  proposal  and  to  bring  its 
implementation  into  line  with  Water  Framework  Directive  related  provisions.  The 
Commission therefore supports the Common Position. 

EN 

6 

   EN