Council set to agree EU water pollutant limits

2347, 25/06/07

EU governments look set to approve new water quality standards for a set of priority pollutants on Thursday. The draft directive is one of several proposals to be discussed by environment ministers at their last meeting under the German presidency (see separate story, this issue) (EED 19/07/06 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/21411).

There is very wide support among governments for a compromise text drafted by the presidency and circulated last week, ENDS understands (see link below). The text is very similar to drafts discussed earlier this year (EED 04/04/07 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=22972).

Denmark is unhappy because it wants stricter controls, and Estonia because it wants weaker ones, but they do not hold enough votes under the EU's weighted majority voting system to prevent an agreement.

The main new element is the introduction of extra flexibility for governments to meet the standards by setting limits on concentrations of the pollutants in sediments and aquatic organisms instead of the water itself. This would only be possible if these limits "offer at least the same level of protection" as the water-based limits.

The compromise text rejects many of the demands made by the European parliament in its first reading last month (EED 22/05/07http://www.endseuropedaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=23242). "It has been written without any consideration to what the parliament has voted", Danish green MEP Margrete Auken complained.

MEPs want quality standards to be set for both water and for sediment and aquatic organisms. They also want to place 28 additional chemicals on a list to be reviewed by the commission for possible classification as priority or priority hazardous substances. Governments are likely to accept neither plan.

Governments are also opposed to a long-term requirement to reduce pollution in "mixing zones". These are areas where pollutant sources are entering water bodies and where the standards would not apply. MEPs say that these areas should be phased out, and the quality limits be uniformly applicable, by 2018 at the latest.

Follow-up: EU council of ministers http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?lang=EN, tel: +32 2 281 6211, and compromise directive text http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/07/st10/st10790-ad01.en07.pdf.fines

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