8.4.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 88/470

1.

How many ‘strategic partnerships’ have now been established and how many people have to date benefited from access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation as a result?

2.

The EU made clear that it was ready to increase financial resources over and above the EUR 1,4 billion per year then being invested in water-related aid. By how much has it done so?

3.

Given that 10 per cent of the time needed to reach the 2015 goals has now passed, what is the Commission's assessment of progress to date and the likelihood of the targets being realised?

4.

What action must a developing country take in order to take advantage of the EU promise to increase financial resources towards water-related development aid?

1.

Important progress has been made since the launch of the EU Water Initiative at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002, with the establishment of two strategic partnerships covering Africa and twelve countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia (EECCA). Two additional geographical components, covering respectively the Mediterranean and Latin America, are in the process of being designed.

On the Africa front, following the signing of the ‘strategic partnership’ during WSSD in Johannesburg, there have been extensive technical exchanges between the European and African partners, through a continued dialogue during the Water Week in August 2003 in Stockholm, the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW) technical meeting in Ougadougou in October 2003 and the Panafrican Water Conference in Addis Ababa in December 2003, culminating in the following four key milestones:

Process-wise, two working groups were set up to address the provision of water and sanitation (under the leadership of Denmark and Lesotho), and the issue of integrated water resources management including for transboundary basins (under the leadership of France and Tanzania). A financial strategy has also been outlined (with United Kingdom lead). These groups involve all relevant stakeholders and are developing activities at national and regional levels for which the objectives of the Water Initiative will be applied (i.e. reinforce political ownership, increase demand based on national strategies and poverty reduction plans, reinforce coordination and efficiency of development assistance, promote partnerships involving all actors). This will take place in the first countries and river basins selected by AMCOW. A more detailed programme for the development of the African component of the EU Water Initiative including specific actions (deriving from the outputs of each programmatic objective and each Working group) will be jointly established in the coming months.

Under the leadership of Denmark, significant progress has been made on the development of the Union-EECCA ‘Strategic Partnership on Water for Sustainable Development’ since its launch at the WSSD in September 2002 as part of the Union Water Initiative. The 5th United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Pan-European Conference of Environment Ministers held in Kyiv in May 2003 was an important step: participants from the 55 countries represented expressed a high level of interest in the EECCA component of the Union Water Initiative, as reflected in the Ministerial Declaration; and a Programme Document on the future development and implementation of the Union-EECCA Strategic Partnership on Water was adopted. The next stage is to take further steps towards concrete action on the ground based on the list of ‘building blocks’ identified, in order to contribute to the achievement of international targets on water and sanitation in the EECCA Region.

In the Mediterranean region, under the stewardship of Greece we are very close to finalising the design of a Mediterranean component of the Water Initiative. In parallel, Spain and Portugal, in close co-operation with Mexico, are close to finalising the Latin American component of the Initiative.

In recognition of the importance of financial questions, the United Kingdom is leading a working group on financial resources, while the Commission is leading an initiative on research. Additionally, monitoring tools are being developed, by international institutions and in the context of the Union Water Initiative, which should enable the progress towards the achievement of the water and sanitation targets to be reviewed.

2.

The approach of the EU Water Initiative — towards increased coordination and a more efficient use of existing instruments — is applied to specific projects and programmes under implementation within Community and Member States development programmes (for example, Community-supported water projects are ongoing in more than 20 African countries, and water is a focal sector in 12 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries). The Community already provides a EUR 10 million support to transboundary basins in Africa.

In addition to reinforcing the use of existing instruments, and recognising the need to use Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a catalyst to the leverage of other financial resources (financial institutions, private, domestic, etc), the Commission has proposed to allocate the conditional billion EUR of the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) to establish a Water Facility for ACP countries. This Facility would constitute an innovative and flexible instrument, and build on the ownership demonstrated by the African partners in the field of water and sanitation (AMCOW, as well as in the framework of New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)). A resolution supporting the creation of this Facility was presented by the African Ministerial Council during the Pan African Water Conference held in December 2003. A Communication on the modalities for the establishment of the ACP-Union Water Facility is being prepared, to be submitted for the agreement of EU Member States and subsequently the ACP-EU Council of Ministers.

3.

Despite these important steps, much remains to be done to achieve tangible results: in order to realise the drinking and sanitation targets, we need to ensure that everyday until 2015 an extra 120 000 people should receive drinking water and an extra 240 000 people should be provided with sanitation.

This requires further steps with a renewed emphasis on:

4.

Developing countries have to lead this process, by increasing the importance of water and sanitation in their national poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies; which is the key to access development aid. Establishing national policies and improving the institutional environment are essential to attract additional resources for water and sanitation infrastructure, mainly from private investors.