In its response to the European Citizen Initiative (ECI), Right2Water, the European Commission stated that it would, “explore the idea of benchmarking water quality as a way of empowering citizens” and, more generally, improve transparency and accountability in the water sector.

Following the Commission’s invitation to send comments on the first stakeholder dialogue which took place on the 9 September 2014, APE has submitted a position paper outlining its views on the initiative.
In our response, we cast serious doubts about the political opportunity, the technical feasibility and the usefulness with regard to the ECI requests of establishing a uniform benchmarking framework at EU level.

Rather, we propose to:

• Support smaller water operators or operators in less favoured areas by promoting not-for-profit partnerships with other operators.
• Give visibility to existing best practices as regards transparency in the water sector, with a view to triggering a virtuous circle.