The European Commission has today (19 March) responded to the first-ever European Citizens’ Initiative, ‘Right2Water’, with a catalogue of measures that does not include a commitment to new legislation – a core demand of the organisers. The response does, however, include the launch, at an unspecified time, of a public consultation about the European Union’s drinking-water directive that could result in changes to current rules.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for inter-institutional relations and administration, said: “Europe’s citizens have spoken, and today the Commission gave a positive response. Water quality, infrastructure, sanitation and transparency will all benefit – for people in Europe and in developing countries – as a direct result of this first-ever exercise in pan-European, citizen-driven democracy. I congratulate the organisers on their achievement.”

Šefčovič, whose department is in charge of managing European Citizens’ Initiatives, spoke after the college of commissioner adopted its response to the ‘Right2Water’ initiative. The response involved nine different departments of the Commission.

“We are replying with a substantial list of commitments for the coming months and years,” Šefčovič said. “But we are not starting from scratch: over the years an enormous amount has already been achieved in this field.” The Commission’s response contains a detailed overview of what the EU has done in the past to address access to water both in the EU and in developing countries.

The Commission’s paper says that the Commission will launch a public consultation on the EU’s drinking-water directive of 1998, “in order to assess the need for improvements and how they could be achieved”. Šefčovič said: “No doubt this [consultation] would lead to a revision of the drinking water directive.” He did not say when the consultation would be launched.

“The reaction of the European Commission lacks any real ambition to respond appropriately to the expectations of 1.9 million people,” said Jan Willem Goudriaan, speaking for the organisers and referring to the number of Europeans who had signed the initiative. “I regret that there is no proposal for legislation recognising the human right to water.”

In a statement, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, which had supported the initiative, said it would ask the political parties and their candidates in the elections to the European Parliament “to commit [themselves] to proposing legislation to implement the human right to water and sanitation and not to liberalise water and sanitation services in the EU and beyond”.Asked whether the EU would enshrine in law the principle that water supplies should remain in public hand, Šefčovič said: “We cannot do something which goes against the [EU] treaty, against the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality. When it comes to the property, to ownership, that’s a decision that is taken at regional or national or local level.” He did stress, however, that water supplies were exempt from the EU’s internal-market rules.

European Voice reported last week that the Commission felt constrained in its reaction to the citizens’ initiative, which had been signed by almost 1.7 million EU citizens, by the approaching end of its mandate and that it did not believe it was politically feasible to commit the next college of commissioners to specific changes in legislation.

“One thing is clear,” Šefčovič said. “The European Citizens’ Initiatives are a success and are now a permanent feature on the European political landscape.”

The Commission has until 28 May to respond to the next citizens’ initiative that has met all the legal requirements, demanding a ban on activities in research, public health and development aid that presuppose the destruction of human embryos.