Water Framework Directive
The EC Framework Directive on water resource management and water quality was agreed during conciliation negotiations between the Council of Europe and the European Parliament (EP) late in the night of 28 June. Subject to a final vote by the Parliament and Council, the long awaited Directive will be published sometime in November.
The text agreed in conciliation contains several recent amendments. Among the most notable are changes to the way hazardous substances are to be dealt with. Earlier texts contained the requirement for the Commission to propose a list of priority substances, which would become the focus of risk management measures and water quality objectives. However, the EP wanted the Directive to acknowledge commitments made in 1998 under the Ospar Convention which called for the cessation of discharges of hazardous substances by the year 2020. The new text now refers to two groups of substances; a list of "priority" substances and "priority hazardous" substances, with discharges of the latter to be subject to cessation or phasing out.
At this time it is uncertain how the group of priority hazardous substances will be derived. The European Commission already published it's proposed list of priority substances in February this year following the adoption of a selection methodology known as COMMPS (Combined monitoring-based and modelling-based priority setting). The proposal, which is now on the EP table for a first reading in September, contains a number of metals including nickel.
The nickel industry is concerned that the selection of nickel has been influenced by the use of hazard information that is irrelevant to the assessment of risks associated with exposure to substances via the aquatic environment. In short, certain relevancy criteria within COMMPS have, in the case of nickel, been ignored. The nickel industry is currently lobbying the Commission, Member States and EP in an effort to readdress the situation. If successful the status of nickel as a priority substance will be re-examined and removed from consideration.
Until 28 June, the Commission had hoped to see the adoption of it's proposed list of priority substances early in 2001, but now the additional requirement to define a list of priority hazardous substances has confused the situation.
