The Enve commission which met last week in Pescara, Italy, adopted the opinion of the EA member, Mrs Erikson, on priority substances in water.

The opinion of the rapporteur supports the European Commission proposal to set higher standards for the quality of water while phasing out a few chemical substances which are harmful to the environment.

We need a baseline to make sure our grandchildren could enjoy clean water, the rapporteur said, and at the same time we should give Member states and local authorities the time to adjust their legislative framework accordingly.
We acknowledge that additional costs would be required to carefully monitor the presence of pollutants and harmful chemical substances in water but costs would be far higher in the future if we were not to act now, the rapporteur added. The opinion will now be discussed by the CoR plenary session in November.

The focus of ENVE conference and study visit was on biodiversity. Members had also the opportunity to visit a regional park and a protected area in the region Abruzzo.