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PRESS RELEASE (Brussels/Luxembourg, 28 June, 2007) - The European Environmental Bureau, Europe's largest federation of environmental citizens' organisations, today expressed its deep regret over the position environment ministers at the EU Environment Council have taken, which allows them even more exemptions ('derogations') from the Commission's modest proposal to monitor and control a small number of well-known water-pollutants. Ministers chose to ignore the European Parliament's request to add problem pollutants[1], to the Commission's list of 33 pollutants and not monitor them. This allows EU nations to claim that their surface waters have reached the required 'good chemical status', while they may actually still be heavily polluted. "Recent cases[2] such as the pollution of Germany's River Möhne and ultimately the Rhine or pollution by Austrian leather mills of River Raab, illustrate the urgent need for EU-wide standards," said Mecki Naschke, EEB's Chemicals Policy Officer. "In the forthcoming second reading, Parliament must show ministers its teeth and insist on timely and stringent monitoring and control requirements." "We can't accept ministers seeking to turn the mandatory monitoring of pollutants in fish like methyl-mercury into a voluntary provision," said Elena Lymberidi of the Zero Mercury Working Group. "Deleting the requirement to ensure that these pollutants don't carry on accumulating is drastic step backwards." "The lack of pollution-control measures in today's agreement makes it even more important that MEPs and ministers, in their forthcoming deliberations on the pesticides approval scheme, agree to stringent cut-off criteria to ban the most dangerous pesticides," said Grazia Cioci, Coordinator at PAN Europe. "We urgently need a further mechanism to withdraw approval for pesticides which are 'priority hazardous' water-pollutants." Environment ministers also weakened key provisions in EU law to reduce pollution at source. According to existing legislation, industrial polluters must limit their discharges into the water to respect the water law's ecosystem goals. The Council has now deleted a pivotal reference in this Directive which would make industrial polluters responsible for limiting their own discharges. It has also decided to ignore pollution by not measuring key pollutants. "It's unacceptable for Member States to try to muddy the waters by not measuring key pollutants. Ministers are giving carte blanche to major polluters and seem to be giving way to the de-regulation agenda favoured by the very industries responsible for this pollution," said John Hontelez, EEB's Secretary General. Some of the pollutants fall under the new REACH (Regulation Evaluation & Authorisation of Chemicals) Regulation, some under pesticides laws, and others are discharged by factories which require an integrated permit [3], but many water-pollutants such as those resulting from medicinal drug-use, remain unregulated. For further information please contact:- See also EEB briefing:- [1] For Parliament's complete list of pollutants, see links below.
[2] River Möhne was polluted with PFTs and required huge investment in the cleaning drinking water. The Austro-Hungarian River Raab continues to be polluted with the surfactant Naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate. Both, PFTs and Naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate are on the Parliament's wish-list to be monitored in EU waters.
[3] Integrated permit according to the IPPC Directive, IPPC: Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control
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