Akkoord over samenwerking in de strijd tegen droogte en waterschaarste (en)

EU environment ministers agreed to work together in the fight against drought and water scarcity and to support the development of an observatory which would reinforce prevention.

The Spanish Minister for the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, Elena Espinosa, and the European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potocnik i, appeared on Friday before the media in order to give an account of the issues dealt with at the meeting of the Council in Luxembourg, which will take up issues related to climate change this afternoon.

In her address, Espinosa underscored the efforts made by the Spanish Presidency, the other countries and the Commission to ensure that the preservation of the Environment is factored into the decision making process with regard to economic and social issues.

'This has been an intense and quite unusual six months', Ms Espinosa acknowledged, whereupon she noted that Spain assumed the Presidency one month after the Lisbon Treaty came into effect.

In this regard, she indicated that Spain has had to organise the six months and adapt to the changes which resulted from the renewal of the European Parliament and the European College of Commissioners. 'Despite all of these circumstances, we have made progress on many issues', said the Spanish minister.

Ms Espinosa affirmed that if drought and water scarcity are not effectively fought, growing demand and limited resource availability will 'have a grave impact on biodiversity and human health'.

In order to prevent this, it will be necessary to include specific water management measures in all sectorial policy areas and to promote planning, said Ms Espinosa.

The Spanish minister emphasised that the countries agreed that water scarcity and drought constitute a 'serious problem' in many European regions, and that this problem is likely to be exacerbated by climate change.

They also recognised the worldwide nature of this problem and underscored that many of the EU's bodies of water 'cross national boundaries' , as a result of which risks and challenges are shared. Therefore, problems must be solved in a coordinated fashion, with third-country participation.

Europe 2020

The ministers agreed that investments in ecological innovation and in the efficient use of water resources will contribute to job creation and to balanced and sustainable growth, in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy for employment and growth.

They also stressed the importance of promoting the efficient use of water and the control of demand, improvements in irrigation techniques and waste water reclamation, with the help of awareness-raising campaigns and education.

'In short,' Ms Espinosa said, 'we need to develop our water resources in a sustainable manner, based on the application of regional policy in areas suffering from drought and water scarcity'.

For his part, the European Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, stressed that it was important to continue the debate on the preparation for the Río 2012 Conference on sustainable development, in connection with the green economy as a component of poverty reduction.

With regard to biowaste processing, Ms Potocnik insisted that Member States work in concert to selectively collect biowaste, and she advocated that the Member States take into account local conditions in the processing of biowaste.

With respect to the protection of whales, one of the issues mentioned at the press conference, both the minister, Ms Espinosa and the commissioner, Ms Potocnik, agreed on the importance of protecting whales, of achieving unanimity amongst the Twenty-seven with regard to this issue and of convincing other countries to participate in the joint effort to establish an international regulatory framework.

Commission Communication

Following the second working session of the council, Espinosa commented on the Communication released by the European Commission on the impact of increasing the present commitment for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with respect to 1990 levels, from 20% to 30% by 2020.

According to the analysis carried out by the Commission, raising this target would have a "limited economic impact", and which would be less than initially estimated.

Espinosa said that all countries acknowledged the effort made by the EU executive body and the copious amount of information it had provided, but that they were also asking for greater information on aspects such as the emissions market, energy security, technological leadership and taxation.

The Spanish minister said she did not think this discussion "in any way" represented a rejection of the Commission's document. “On the contrary, the comments made by the member states enrich the Communication and seek to provide it with complementary information”, she said.

The Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, meanwhile, said that the countries had shown that they want to see "ambitious results" at the climate summit to be held in Cancún (Mexico), and congratulated Spain for its work and the results achieved during its Presidency.