EU STATES HIDING WATER POLLUTION, BRUSSELS SAYS
06.5.07 - Leído 73 veces. Enviar esta notaHonor Mahony
The European Commission has said it fears member states are removing polluted bathing water from EU quality-monitoring lists in order to keep any dirty waters away from Brussels’ eyes
BRUSSELS, Belgium; June 5, 2007.- A report published on Thursday (31 May) found that over 96 percent of coastal areas meet EU hygiene standards, with almost 89 percent of freshwater areas such as lakes and rivers also coming up to scratch. But the commission was not entirely happy with the results.
“Despite these encouraging results I am very concerned by the number of bathing sites withdrawn from the list,” EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.
“Removing sites from the list because they are polluted is not a solution. Member states must instead draw up plans for clearing up these polluted sites,” he continued.
Member states can choose which sites are put on the list for EU scrutiny with Brussels noting that 88 coastal areas and 166 freshwater sites had been removed since the previous year.
In 2006, a total of 21,094 bathing areas were monitored, slightly up from the previous year - 14,345 of these were in coastal waters and 6,749 in inland freshwater areas.
“The Commission is concerned that in some cases bathing sites are being de-listed to mask pollution problems and artificially improve compliance results without tackling the problem at source,” said Mr Dimas’ statement.
It did not point the finger but noted that last year it started legal proceedings against Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden for delisting sites.
(EUobserver)
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