In today’s Environment Council meeting France, Spain, Denmark and Hungary voiced their opposition to the Commission’s intention to revise the Water Framework Directive (WFD) once more. The four countries’ representatives told Commissioner Roswall that, while they support the objective of reducing the EU’s reliance on imported critical raw materials, the WFD already has enough flexibility to allow mining projects to go ahead within current rules.
France’s environment minister announced her government’s intention to send the Commission a non-paper detailing this position later today. Spain, Denmark and Hungary expressed support for the paper during the Council’s public session. Commissioner Roswall did not respond during the session, focusing instead on the Water Resilience Strategy in her reaction to the Council debate.
This initiative is in line with our position that, following the publication of Commission guidance last month, a revision of the WFD is not needed. If a revision were attempted, it would risk weakening water protection standards and shifting costs from polluters to taxpayers and water bills, all without addressing the real bottlenecks.