EC Bathing WaterDirective

Jon Worthjon@jonworth.eu

Photo © Teignbridge District Council

Background - Pillars

I

Single Market

EC

III

PJCCM

EU

II

CFSP

EU

Background - Policy Cycle

Commission drafts legislation

Legislation published

Co-decision

Legislation agreed

Implementation

Is the legislation working?

Commission analysis

Commission Expert Groups

CouncilWorking Groups

ComitologyCommittees

Types of EC LegislationDirectives

binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which they are addressed

choice of form and methods left to national authorities

Regulations

general application

binding in their entirety

directly applicable in all Member States

…either of these need a legal basis.

Committee(s) and Plenary

Simple majority

General Approach, Political Agreement

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

Co-decision: 1st Reading dealCommission publishes

draft Directive

European Parliament amends

Council accepts Parliament amendments

Directive agreed

Commission Structure

Political Groups

Council Hierarchy

Working Groups

COREPER

Council

UK Permanent

Representation to

the EU (UKRep)

Whitehall

Council Formations

General Affairs and External Relations

(GAERC)

Economic andFinancial Affairs

(ECOFIN)

Agricultureand

Fisheries

Justice and Home Affairs

(JHA)

Competitiveness (Internal Market,

Industry and Research)

Transport, Telecommunications

and Energy

Employment,Social Policy, Health

and Consumer Affairs

Environment

Education, Youth and

Culture

Council Voting Currently Qualified Majority Voting

255 of 345 votes Simple majority of MS (i.e. 14) 62% of the EU population

From 2014 / 2017 (Reform Treaty) 55% of the Member States 65% of the EU Population

Committee(s) and Plenary

Simple majority

General Approach, Political Agreement

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

Co-decision: 1st Reading dealCommission publishes

draft Directive

European Parliament amends

Council accepts Parliament amendments

Directive agreed

Committee(s) and Plenary

Simple majority

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

General Approach, Political Agreement

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

Committee(s) and Plenary

Absolute majority

Co-decision: 2nd Reading dealCommission publishes

draft Directive

European Parliament amends

Council rejects Parliament amendments

Common Position

European Parliament amends

Council accepts Parliament amendments

Directive agreed

Committee(s) and Plenary

Simple majority

27 MEPs, 27 MS, Commission

Prepared by trialogue

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

General Approach, Political Agreement

Working Groups, COREPER,

Council

QMV

Committee(s) and Plenary

Absolute majority

Co-decision: 3rd Reading dealCommission publishes

draft Directive

European Parliament amends

Council rejects Parliament amendments

Common Position

European Parliament amends

Council rejects Parliament amendments

Conciliation

3rd ReadingDirective agreed

Water Quality Existing Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC): responsible for an

increase in bathing water quality at identified bathing sites throughout Europe, achieving its primary aim of protecting public health.

Directive considered to be in need of simplification and updating to take into account lessons learnt from its implementation, developments in science and knowledge about the risks of bathing.

New draft Directive published in 2002. update the way in which water quality is measured, focusing on fewer microbiological indicators, and

setting different standards for inland and coastal bathing sites reduce the health risks linked to bathing by setting scientifically based minimum water quality standards make changes to monitoring and sampling frequency allow a limited number of water samples to be disregarded during short term pollution incidents, if the

event is predicted and the public warned beforehand provide better information to the public, allowing more informed choices to be made about the risk of

bathing improve the overall management of bathing water quality by requiring an assessment of potential

sources of pollution be compatible with other EU water related legislation

Approaching EU Institutions

DEFRAUK NGOs

EU-level

NetworksCommission

Parliament

Council

NMDs,

Agencies

Legislation Databases European Parliament OEIL

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/

Commission EUR-LEXhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/

Commission PRE-LEXhttp://ec.europa.eu/prelex/