EU Ministers Test the Water on Clean Beach Rules

BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 4, 2003 (ENS) - Environment ministers from across the European Union gave a cool reception to plans to revise the bloc's bathing water law at the first high level discussion of the topic in Brussels today at the quarterly EU Environment Council.

Issued last October by the European Commission, the legislative branch of the EU, the plans would streamline the 1976 bathing water quality law, boiling down a long list of testing parameters to just two new microbiological indicators - intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli.

Waters would be classed as "good" or "excellent" if concentrations of these were below certain levels.

The beach at Bournemouth, England (Photo courtesy Freefoto)

UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher led the general scepticism of the Commission's calculations. "If that was so, our public health figures would show 1.5 million cases, but it doesn't even figure in our surveillance data," he said.

Meacher was among several ministers to question the Commission's cost-benefit analysis. UK calculations showed that meeting the new standards would cost UKŁ25bn (€36.2bn) over 25 years, almost three times as much the benefits.

There would be a "very significant problem" in implementing them, Meacher said. Over 15 percent of UK waters compliant with current targets would fail the new ones.

Belgian Environment Minister Olivier Deleuze said the equivalent figure for his beaches was 30 percent, and also queried whether the "financial effort is proportionate to the environmental benefit."

Spain and Portugal said they needed more evidence to show the new standards would increase bathers' health benefits before making the investment.

Several ministers said the new standards would only be acceptable if they could ban bathing in certain waters for short periods when the requirements could not be met.

French minister Roselyne Bachelot produced the most detailed suggestions to amend the Commission plan. The draft law should be revised using the two new parameters but with weaker standards exactly equivalent to existing ones, she said.

Beach at Nice, France (Photo courtesy Tours of Provence)

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom put a brave face on the general opposition to the proposed standards, insisting that the Commission's numbers were valid and based on World Health Organization studies backed up by two independent investigations.

On the idea of temporary beach closures, she said that swimmers "will not settle for a sign telling them the water is not suitable today."

Only Greece came out firmly in favor of expanding the scope of bathing waters to include areas used for other activities such as surfing. Most ministers were against.

The Commission has proposed voluntary extension by member states but Wallstrom said she would support a French idea to study the possibility of a separate directive instead.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}