The Red Aqua Pública demands from the Ministry of Health that the process of transposition of the European directive on water for human consumption be participatory and transparent
Translation in English of the press release from Red Agua Pública
9 June 2021
On 16 December 2020, the Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted the Directive 2020/2184 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. This legislation replaced the then existing legislation dating from 1998, which was clearly outdated. The revision of the directive was largely motivated by pressure from the Right2Water Citizens' Initiative "The right to water and sanitation as a human right", which was supported by nearly 2 million European citizens and many social organisations who argued that water supply cannot be governed by internal market rules, must be left out of the liberalisation process, and must meet strict conditions of information, public participation and accountability, all in the general context of the recognition of the human right to water.
Although the European Parliament took on board the demands of the Right2Water initiative, in the process of revising the 1998 directive, a significant part of the citizens' demands were relegated to the background, so that the directive approved in December 2020, although it represents an important step forward with respect to the previous one, does not cover the fundamental part of the citizens' demands expressed in the Right2Water initiative.
In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union, the government has set in motion the process of transposing the new directive into Spanish law. This process, which is being led by the Ministry of Health, is being carried out in an opaque manner without encouraging citizen participation in an issue in which they should have a special presence, considering the defining principles of the human right to water.
In this context, the Red Aqua Pública has written to the Minister of Health -see attached letter-, denouncing this circumstance and offering its collaboration so that the transposition of the European directive includes the citizens' demands that were overlooked in the directive approved in December 2020. The letter has been sent to the heads of the Ministries of Consumer Affairs and Ecological Transition, as they are also directly involved in the process.
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Leandro del Moral 620666912
Pedro Pablo Serrano 649824397
Gonzalo Marín 646559647
The Red Aqua Pública (RAP) is a space that brings together dozens of platforms, social, environmental, trade union and political organisations in Spain that promote a vision of water as a commons and public service, and fight for the defence of public, non-profit, transparent and participatory management of water supply and sanitation services.