(Brussels, 3 November 2015) Irish MEP Lynn Boylan spoke today at the Executive Committee of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) in Brussels.
Ms Boylan was the rapporteur for the Report on the follow up of the European’s Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Right2Water, a Europe-wide petition which secured 1.9 million signatures.
The ECI called for access to water for all, the defence of public water against liberalisation and for the EU to ensure universal access to water and sanitation. The European Parliament approved the report in September which called on the Commission to put forward legislative proposals that would recognise universal access and the human right to water, and to permanently exclude water and sanitation from internal market rules and from future trade agreements, such as TTIP and TiSA.
The report was also critical of the Commission’s role as part of the Troika in imposing privatisation on water services. It is also the first European Parliamentary report that draws attention to the importance of public-public partnerships and the trends towards remunicipalisation of water companies. Right2Water was the first ECI that successfully collected enough signatures to be formally considered by the European Commission. As such, the Commission’s reaction, which included no legislative proposals, was not the ambitious response that this historic initiative should have merited. Lynn Boylan’s report, with the work of many other MEPs, has helped to keep up the pressure on the Commission to take the signatures of nearly two million European citizens seriously.
The strength of European public opinion on water rights is now stronger than ever. The Commission must respond by taking concrete action to legislate for the implementation of the Right2Water demands in the EU.
Read EPSU’s response to the Commission’s initial reply to the ECI Right2Water
See also our press release on the European Parliament’s approval of the Report on Right2Water
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