Quality of water intended for human consumption. Drinking Water Directive

The rapporteur urged Parliament to adopt Amendments Nos 1 to 30 as these would improve the directive. Indicating that the common position represented an acceptable compromise, Commissioner Bjerregaard stated that the Commission could accept Amendments No 6, 8, 15 and 19. It could also accept Amendments Nos 12 and 29 in part and Amendments Nos 13, 26 and 30 in principle. However, Amendments Nos 1-5, 7, 9-11, 14, 16-18, 20-25, 27, 28 and 31-34 could not be accepted. With specific regard to the amendments on the derogations (Nos 16, 17 and 22), the Commissioner stressed that these derogations would be granted only if there was no risk to health. They would in addition be time-restricted. According to Mrs Bjerregaard, Parliament’s major reservations had already been taken into consideration and it would be difficult to renegotiate these points with Council. As regards introducing new parameters for radioactivity (Amendments Nos 23 and 26), the Commissioner welcomed the fact that such parameters would be incorporated in a directive for the first time. On hormone-like substances (Amendments Nos 8, 25 and 30), the Commission shared Parliament’s reservations and the Commissioner announced that guidelines would very shortly be defined. On lead, Mrs Bjerregaard confirmed that the idea of requiring reports from Member States after five years could be accepted but the deadline specified for the adaptation periods could not be reduced. Likewise, the Commissioner did not accept Amendments Nos 31 to 34 which aimed to change the classification for copper and which the rapporteur had already asked to be rejected.