On 18 February, Aqua Publica Europea’s Vice-President and Deputy Mayor of Paris, Dan Lert, participated in the European Commission’s Implementing Dialogue on the Nitrates Directive, the Water Framework Directive, and the Nature Directives, hosted by Commissioners Roswall and Hansen.
In his contribution, Dan Lert:
- highlighted successful examples of cooperation between water operators and farmers to promote more sustainable practices, including through payments for ecosystem services, demonstrating that fruitful synergies in this context are possible and should be further supported through EU policies and funding schemes;
- welcomed the Commission’s willingness to address bottlenecks and inconsistencies in the current legal framework, and expressed APE’s readiness to provide concrete suggestions (including, for example, on notification requirements for payments for ecosystem services under State aid rules);
- stressed that efforts to improve implementation should not come at the expense of ambition of achieving high quality standards for our water bodies. A degradation water bodies’ quality would not only risk adverse impacts on citizens’ health, but could also affect the affordability of water services and the competitiveness of European companies (especially SMEs), due to the increased treatment costs linked to deteriorating water quality;
- finally, underlined the strong link between water quality and water quantity (polluted water is ultimately unusable water), and the need to maintain a comprehensive, long-term approach to sustainable water resource management, in line with the objectives of the European Water Resilience Strategy, as a condition for European society and the economy to thrive.
Aqua Publica Europea is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this high-level debate and stands ready to support EU institutions with concrete proposals and practical examples, as outlined in our recent work:
