Public hearing about the ECI Right2water

A public hearing in the European Parliament about the ECI Right2water is scheduled for 17 February 2014 from 15.00hrs to 18.30hrs. It will be organized by the European Parliament Environment (ENVI) Committee.

There will be also representatives from the Internal Market (IMCO) and the Development Cooperation (DEVE) Committees because of the contents of the ECI, as well as the Petitions (PETI) Committee that will be present as a permanent Committee for ECI hearings - a large number of MEPs is expected.

EPSU has officially submitted the (over 1.8 million) valid signatures on 20 December 2013; the European Commission will give its answer to the demands^[1] by 20 March 2014. The hearing is an opportunity to convince the European Parliament of the importance of implementing the human right to water and sanitation in European law and show them the broad EU-wide support for it.

After the hearing and the answer from the European Commission the « normal » procedure will start in which we would like to see as many proposals as possible turned into European legislative texts and actions. The final word will then be to the European Parliament.

EPSU looks forward to seeing members of the EWM on 17 February in Brussels and counts on EWM's continuous support to this campaign in its final stage.

[1] Demands that have been submitted together with the certificates of valid signatures