Water policy in European Union

Résumé du document

Until the XXIst century, environment has always been set aside. It is true that before the industrial age, humans had no real impact on it. Thus, the question has appeared later when the governments of developed countries started to see the future consequences of the damage caused by our industries and our way of consumption on our planet. The question of water clearly appears as a priority in the protection of our environment. Firstly, we have to consider that water is crucial for human life and for all ecosystems around the world. In fact, it is a vital resource, used for the creation of food and moreover, it is essential for the wellbeing of our body. The human body is composed of 60% water, and it is indispensable to bring life and for humankind. If a person does not drink for six days, he will die. Secondly, it represents an important and inevitable economic resource. Actually, water is used in a large part to answer to industrial and agricultural needs. It is an integral part of the production process for numerous industrial sectors.

Extraits

[...] Actually, it is less expensive for an enterprise to pollute than to protect and respect the environment. Additionally, it also affects other economics agent, like household who could know restrictions in their way of water consumption. Thereby, it seems clear that‘s two points are totally linked, if we want to have a water of quality, we must set up standards in relations to our waiting. From there, the action undertakes by Europe to deal with the problem concerning water can be seen in three stages which reflect the evolution of the environmental policy: The first phase of the European water legislation has started at the creation of the first Environment Action Programme in 1973 (it has been from 1973 to 1976) with the Directive concerning the surface water of 1975. [...]

[...] I would like to conclude this party by the fact that the European Union has invested an enormous amount of money in the treatment and the collect of waste water. Thereby, this investment was made in order to resolve the most serious problem of water pollution coming from industries and household. However, certain fields need to be improved. Today, it is still essential to continue research concerning diffuse sources of pollution as agriculture and to invest in new infrastructures for waste water. Manures nitrogen and animal's wastes are often an important source of pollution and have to be a priority in the future action of the European Union. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, the Commission has any material constraint to impose the respect of the Community legislation. Actually, since 1985, it has engaged different procedures of injunction with agreement of the ECJ. For example, in 2005, France has not respected the Urban Waste Water Directive of 1991 and it could be fined to pay between 300 and 400 millions Euros. In addition, conscious of stakes, the European Parliament also asked to the Commission to give the priority to the control of the respect of the Community legislation as regards environment to limit the deficiencies in the application of the directives The Thus, in order to check if the Members States have correctly applied directives and other measures which have been taken within the framework of the Environment Community Policy, the Commission has put in place two kind of control: A formal monitoring which involves the verification of the transposition process of directives at the national level and which generates the checking in order to know if the measures taken are in conformity with the Community legislation. [...]

[...] Moreover, as I say before, it is a cross-border problem; it will be pointless to continue in this way, knowing that we need a common accord if we want to success. a. The integration of environmental policy in Europe context In order to understand how it has taken place, we have to notice that policy of water is a part of the environmental policy. So, we have to understand how environmental question were born and were arrived into the political scene. Although the creation of Europe is begun after the Second World War, the ecological problems were not tackled before the 70's. [...]

[...] When we have started to be aware of environmental problem, the big polluter were Europe and U.S.A, today, it concern all continent. Some actions have been taken such as Kyoto Protocol but a long lane has to be done. References Book - Bernard Barraqué Les politiques de l'eau en Europe, Published by La Découverte, Paris. - Sylvie Arend, Christiane Rabier le processus politique, environnement, prise de décision et pouvoir published by les presses de l'université d'ottawa. Internet - Department for environment, food and rural affairs,2009, what is sustainable development ,[cited 3rd march http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/what/index.htm - Europa Environment Directorate-general, [cited 1st march], http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/index_en.htm - Europa Environmental integration history, [cited 25th February], http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/integration_history.htm - Europa the LIFE programme, [cited 12th April], http://www.catsg.org/iberianlynx/03_programmes/3_7_funding/European_Commissi on_website_-_LIFE-_What_is_-_History_of_LIFE.pdf - Europa Press release, Practicing what we preach: environmental management in the European Commission, [cited 4th March], http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1678&type=HTML &aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en - European Environment Agency Water terms and data, [cited 10th march], http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water - European Topic Centre on Water EINET, [cited 22th march], http://water.eionet.europa.eu/ Document - DEFRA A study to identify baseline data on water use in agriculture. [...]