30.4.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 109/29

1)

Groundwater is a resource that is both important and at risk, and one which is of great importance to the quality of the environment in a number of wetlands and nature areas on land, for industrial and agricultural production and as a source of drinking water;

2)

Protecting the quantity and quality of groundwater should therefore be a major political priority at both European and national level, and common European initiatives are necessary in order to harmonise rules in this area as much as possible, bearing in mind the major natural differences to be seen throughout groundwater areas in Europe;

3)

Matters concerning the quantity of groundwater are dealt with in the Water Framework Directive, which is why the Groundwater Directive focuses on the quality of groundwater,

1.1

considers that the EU Commission's proposal for a new groundwater directive and the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which is the mother directive, expresses a reasonable and responsible strategy both as regards the environment and the economy as a whole, with the emphasis on preventing pollution and restoring the environment;

1.2

welcomes the proposal for a new groundwater directive and considers it to be a good supplement to the WFD's provisions concerning groundwater;

1.3

approves the fact that the proposal does not contain a comprehensive list of common European standards in the form of limit values for the amount of various pollutants in groundwater, but merely includes limit values in pursuance of Community legislation that has already been approved, including the Nitrates Directive and the Plant Protection and Biocidal Products Directives;

1.4

notes with satisfaction that, instead of common European quality standards, the Member States are to draw up threshold values for relevant groundwater pollutants – both those occurring naturally and those resulting from human activity – on the basis of criteria in the directive;

1.5

supports the directive containing a minimum list of substances for which the Member States are to draw up threshold values;

1.6

considers it reasonable that the EU Commission should subsequently, in the light of the Member State's reports, be able to adopt a position on whether there is a basis for proposing common European quality standards leading to a further harmonisation of rules in this field;

1.7

assumes that the Committee of the Regions will be consulted on any amendments to Annex I of the directive, which contains common European quality standards;

1.8

considers it necessary that common European standards – both now and in the future – may be made more rigorous in Member States in order to protect surface water;

1.9

wishes, moreover, to emphasise that, when grouping together groundwater bodies and designing monitoring networks, it is necessary for the Member States to ensure that the comparison of groundwater quality is made with a homogenous material, e.g. comparable redox ratio or comparable geological conditions.

2.1

recommends that it should be evident from the groundwater directive that river basin district authorities are able to impose more rigorous national threshold values if this is necessary in order to comply with the WFD's environmental quality objectives in the river basin districts concerned;

2.2

recommends that where the background levels of naturally occurring substances in groundwater are not known, background levels should be laid down in accordance with the best professional opinion until monitoring data is produced. In some cases it will still hardly be possible to find natural background levels;

2.3

recommends that the Member States ensure that comparable monitoring points are used when identifying significant and sustained upward trends in bodies of groundwater or groups of bodies;

2.4

recommends that phosphorus be included on the minimum list in part A.1 of Annex III to the proposed directive, as this is a substance that in the long term threatens the chemical quality of groundwater;

2.5

recommends that insofar as old contaminated industrial sites cannot be cleaned up in a balanced way under Article 4(4) and (5) of the Water Framework Directive, these provisions should be amended at the first opportunity. At the same time, consideration should be given to reintroducing the concept of Risk Management Zones into water management plans for catchment areas; this concept takes account of the environmental and economic aspects, as well as of practical feasibility;

2.6

recommends that it be made quite clear in Article 4(3) of the groundwater directive which committee is to be asked for an opinion before any amendments are made to Annex I;

2.7

recommends that the Committee of the Regions be consulted to the fullest possible extent over future amendments to the groundwater directive, including significant adjustments to Annexes II to IV, as the regional and local authorities often have extensive technical and administrative experience on groundwater matters, and that the Member States be called upon to make use of such experience in further work to do with the directive;

2.8

recognises that the proposed directive, as part of the Water Framework Directive, will have serious financial implications for Member States and urges that the new and existing financial schemes must address the economic burden the Member States will bear when fulfilling the environmental objectives of the Water Framework Directive;

2.9

proposes, therefore, the following concrete amendments: