Brussels must listen to the 1.8 million supporters of 'Right2Water' and prevent the liberalisation of water, writes Marco Affronte.

Under the European parliament and council's regulation, there is a procedure known as the 'European citizens' initiative', whereby EU citizens may submit questions to be put on the commission's agenda, provided that they have collected at least one million signatures in at least seven European countries.

Right2Water is the first such initiative to have met these requirements. After having collected over 1.8 million signatures, it was officially submitted to the commission in December 2013.

Brussels has three months to submit its response to the initiative, in the form of a communication setting out "its legal and political conclusions on the initiative of citizens, any action it intends to take and its reasons for taking or not taking that action".

"While the commission did reiterate some important concepts, such as access to drinking water as a basic human right, it failed to properly address fears that public water would be liberalised, simply saying that it was up to member states to legislate on this issue"

This initiative, as the name implies, is about water and the right to its free access. Essentially, citizens are asking for three things. First, they want to exclude water services from any form of liberalisation. Second, they wish to reform European legislation on the right to drinking water and third, to step up efforts to ensure universal access to it and to sanitation.

The commission's response on Right2Water was published last March. Currently, parliament is working on analysing the initiative, the commission's communication and follow-up action. This work is being carried out by several committees, including the environment, public health and food safety committee, for which I am working on this dossier as the EFDD shadow rapporteur.

In terms of the commission's communication, it should be noted that the document is in no way a legislative instrument. However, many feel that an appropriate European citizens' initiative should, in principle, result in a new legislative proposal from the college.

I am disappointed by the contents of the communication. While the commission did reiterate some important concepts, such as access to drinking water as a basic human right, it failed to properly address fears that public water would be liberalised, simply saying that it was up to member states to legislate on this issue.

In particular, the communication points out that water supply services are the responsibility of member states' local authorities, therefore leaving it up to them to decide whether to manage this service directly, indirectly, or through private providers.

The commission has announced that it will step up its efforts to ensure full implementation of EU water legislation by member states, but neither I nor the initiative's organisers feel this is enough.

The majority of EU citizens are worried about drinking water being privatised, as was proven by the large number of people who responded to the 'Right2Water' initiative. Until now, it would appear that their voices have remained unheard.

In my country, Italy, a national referendum on the issue was held in 2011, and resulted in 27 million people voting against any rule which left a private company with the management of our water supplies.

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm fuelled by this victory quickly turned to disappointment, with the referendum demands failing to result in a true answer. Now, we know that Europe will not protect a principle that to many citizens, is essential.

Parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee is expected to express its opinion on the follow-up to 'Right2Water' before May 2015.

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