Big News for water, by David Sanchez. (foodandwatereurope.org)

By David Sánchez
Campaign Officer
Food & Water Europe
dsanchez(@foodandwatereurope.org

Thank you for ALL you do. We ARE making a difference.

BIG NEWS: On 8 September 2015, a majority of the Members of the European Parliament endorsed water as a common good — vital to human life and dignity, which should not be treated as a commodity — and approved the report on the European Citizens' Initiative on the Right to Water. 

As a result of a grassroots campaign powered by you, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to come forward with legislative proposals to make the human right to water and sanitation a reality.

It is clear: the European Commission cannot keep on ignoring the demands from nearly 2 million citizens, the European Parliament and the European Social and Economic Committee for the implementation of a human right already recognised by the UN. Continued inaction would just result in a great loss of credibility for the European institutions.

The report also demanded that the European Commission abstain from pushing for water privatisation in the context of austerity measures in countries like Greece, and called on the Commission to permanently exclude water, sanitation and wastewater disposal from internal market rules and from trade agreements.

Nearly 2 million signatures supported the European Citizens' Initiative on the Right to Water, with three clear demands: all EU inhabitants should enjoy the right to water and sanitation; water supply and water management should be excluded from liberalisation and the EU should increase its efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.

This vote marked a great victory for citizens. Now is the time for the European Commission to finally react.