Blog Categories: Europe

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Europe

Brussels – “The newly published report by the UK’s Energy and Climate Committee on the implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill for deepwater drilling on the UK Continental Shelf fully reaffirms Food & Water Europe’s position on the specific dangers of deepwater drilling in the region.”

“The conclusions and recommendations of the report affirm the warnings that we flagged more than six months ago following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The lack of investment into safety technology by oil companies, leads to their inability to prepare for ‘high consequence, low probability’ events. Furthermore, an oil spill off the coast of the Shetlands would be far harder to clean up than the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico due to the harsh weather conditions in the region. Finally, UK and EU legislation fails to clearly define liability in case of a large-scale oil spill in the region.

“Food & Water Europe’s map shows how the ocean currents would contaminate the entire North Sea should there be a spill West of the Shetlands.”

“While we welcome most findings of the report, we are baffled by its recommendation against a moratorium even though the extensive evidence within the report itself clearly calls for one.

“EU and UK officials who continue to allow deepwater oil drilling before the proper precautions are in place and the necessary improvements have been made should keep in mind that their irresponsible behaviour will be held accountable in the event of an oil spill.”

Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope(dot)org

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Europe

Brussels – “The Department of Justice in the United States is pursuing criminal charges against United Water, a subsidiary of Suez Environnement operating in the U.S, and two of its employees for allegedly tampering with E. coli monitoring at its Gary, Ind. wastewater facility, which reduced the amount of treatment chemicals used. The DOJ believes this is a violation of the Clean Water Act.

“Food & Water Europe applauds the Department of Justice for its actions. This indictment shows why our water services should be publicly owned. Private water operators are often based hundreds of miles away from the municipalities they serve. Their first priority is shareholders, not communities. Private operators are known for trimming costs in operation, as well as cutting jobs and raising rates in communities they enter.

“In Europe, we see the same situation. Even though there is strong public resistance to privatization, the public sector is helping the private water companies by providing finance, developing strategies, and even investing in these companies. At the same time, the ownership of private water companies in Europe has become all the more concentrated, overwhelmingly dominated by Veolia and Suez.

“In order to allow cities to retain control over their water systems, the funding gap for water infrastructure needs to be reversed. Instead of allowing private water companies to become increasingly dependent on state capital, Member States and the European Union should prioritize dedicated funding to repair our aging systems so that public leaders aren’t tempted to turn over water operations to private companies.”

Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

Brussels – Proposals from the European Commission to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013 show signs of fairer distribution of subsidies, according to the coalition. [1]

Despite this positive development the communication came short on proposals for stopping the collapse of family farming in Europe and dumping in developing countries, according to the coalition. The plans outlined also fail to address correctly climate change and the protection of biodiversity.

The communication from the European Commission lays out a range of laudable goals for reforming agriculture in Europe but fails to make strong proposals by only “adapting’ the current tools. Furthermore, it makes clear that the CAP 2013 proposal based on global competitiveness will let down its own farmers and consumers.

The communication suggests some elements for social improvements such as a ceiling for direct payments linked to employment, payments for small farms, and the maintenance of payments coupled to production to sustain farms in disadvantaged rural areas. However, proposals show that the European Commission continues to believe that agriculture and food markets are efficient and that “competitiveness” delivers a fair solution. The European and global crisis have shown the contrary: “free” market orientation and international trade rules have failed.

The coalition believes that a real reform is needed to promote environmental and socially responsible forms of farming, strengthening food production to feed people in their own regions, instead of export oriented and import dependent model, as well as promoting sustainable family farms instead of large industrialized units. This reform requires regulatory tools such as supply management, intervention and public storage in case of conjunctural sectorial crisis and border regulation to avoid low cost imports.

To face the big challenges for the environment, local production cycles can respond to the future scarcity and pollution of natural resources. The latter requires support of good agricultural practices, including animal welfare requirements on all farms, not just cross compliance linked with direct payments1. An agricultural model focused first on domestic market, both here and in the developing countries, is better for farmers in Europe and worldwide. The CAP should reward environmental sustainability, stop supporting unsustainable practices and achieve a balanced development of territories by including support for rural employment, diversity of food systems and locally grown production.

At this stage, the communication does not measure up to the expectations of food sovereignty, income and employment in agriculture, sustainable management practices and protection of natural resources. Real tools for supply management and market regulations are essential and will require strong political will to challenge the framework and the policies of international agreements. The coalition of farmers’ groups, social movements and NGOs in Europe call for a Common Agricultural and Food Policy for consumers and farmers in Europe and worldwide, not for the export-oriented food industry.

Get the whole statement and list of organizations.

For more information please contact:

ECVC: Geneviève Savigny (Fr, En) :+33 (0)625551687 [email protected] and ECVC/ COAG : Andoni García Arriola (ES), +34636451569 [email protected] – Paulina Novo (Es, En), European movement for food sovereigntyandanotherCAP+31(0)[email protected], GertEngelen(Nl,Fr,En,Es),Vredeseilanden+32 (0) 49738137, [email protected] Stanka Becheva (Ge,En,Bu), Friends of the Earth Europe +32(0)28931000, [email protected] – Willy Schuster (Ro,Hu,Ge,En) – Eco Ruralis Association + 40 (0)752108184 [email protected] Irmi Salzer (Ge) – Agrarbündnis Österreich (Au) +43 69911827634, [email protected] – Jocelyn Parot, Urgenci (FR ENG FIN), 0033687044930, [email protected] – Andrea Ferrante (it,En,fr,es) Italian Committee for Food Sovereignty, +39 348 01 89 221, [email protected]
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1 Indeed ,despite present cross compliance, factory farms continue to develop

Déclaration de la Directrice Executive de Food & Water Europe, Wenonah Hauter

Bruxelles – Cette semaine, un tribunal français a rejeté la poursuite pour diffamation intentée par Suez contre le film documentaire FLOW. Food & Water Europe applaudit le tribunal pour sa défense du droit des médias à examiner les activités des sociétés multinationales, en particulier lorsque ces activités compromettent la capacité de millions de personnes à travers le monde à accéder à une ressource naturelle vitale.

« Avec 1,2 milliard de personnes dans le monde qui n’ont pas accès à l’eau potable, propre et abordable, il est inadmissible qu’une société aussi puissante que Suez utilise son influence considérable pour masquer les faits derrière cette crise. »

«Bien sûr, compte tenu des performances exécrables de la société dans la gestion des ressources en eau, leur réaction au film est bien moins surprenante. De la Bolivie à l’Indonésie, Suez a laissé une traînée de débordements d’eaux usées, d’eau potable contaminée, de dégradation d’infrastructure, de scandales politiques et bien d’autres exemples encore de gestion bâclée à la suite de sa tentative de tirer profit des systèmes d’eau locale dans le monde entier. »

«Nous espérons que cette décision incitera citoyens et militants à se joindre à Food & Water Europe dans la poursuite de notre mission visant à exposer et contester les abus de ressources essentielles comme l’eau publique dans le monde. »

Food & Water Europe est un programme de Food & Water Watch, une ONG à but non-lucratif représentant les droits des consommateurs basée à Washington, DC, qui vise à garantir une eau propre et une alimentation sûre en Europe et dans le monde. Nous luttons contre le contrôle et l’abus de nos aliments et des ressources en eau par l’industrie en donnant aux citoyens les moyens d’agir et de transformer la conscience collective autour de ce que nous mangeons et buvons.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

Statement of Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Brussels – This week, a French court rejected a defamation lawsuit brought by Suez Water against the documentary film FLOW. Food & Water Europe applauds the court for its commitment to upholding the rights of the media to scrutinize the activities of multinational corporations, especially when those activities compromise the ability of millions of people around the world to access a vital natural resource.

“With 1.2 billion people around the world lacking access to safe, clean, affordable water, it is unconscionable that a company as powerful as Suez would choose to use its considerable influence to obscure the facts behind this crisis.

“Of course, given the company’s checkered performance in water resource management, their reaction to the film is less than surprising. From Bolivia to Indonesia, Suez has left a trail of sewage overflows, contaminated drinking water, decaying infrastructure, political scandals and other examples of botched management in the wake of its attempt to profit off of local water systems around the globe.

“We hope this decision will inspire activists to join Food & Water Europe as we continue our mission to expose and challenge the abuse of essential public water resources around the world.”

Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

Brussels – Food & Water Europe welcomes the initiative of five MEPs who today launched a written declaration in the European Parliament to fight the privatisation of water resources. Together the MEPs, Giommaria Uggias, François Alfonsi, Véronique de Keyser, João Ferreira and Niccolò Rinaldi have reaffirmed the importance of the protection of water as a public asset.

“Claims that privatization would bring efficiency and better service have not materialized,” says Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “Instead, we have seen communities suffering from numerous problems including poor maintenance and rising bills, demonstrating why the movement to stop the privatization of water is gaining momentum around the world.”

The privatization of water began in Europe, but this so-called “French Model” of private water management is being rejected on its home turf. Numerous municipalities around France are fighting for a return to public water, and in one of the most high-profile cases, its capital Paris ended its contract with Veolia and returned to public water this year.

Elsewhere around Europe, a similar trend has been brewing; in Italy more than 1.4 million people signed a petition calling for a referendum against the privatization of their water services.

The failures of water privatization don’t stop at Europe. In the United States, the city of Atlanta ended its water contract with United Water 16 years early due to delayed repairs, lost jobs, inadequate responses to emergencies and charges to the city for work not done.

In Latin America, in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, privatization of public water services (pushed by the World Bank and IMF) worsened access to water for poor communities who couldn’t pay. In Cochabamba, Bolivia, after a week of multiple protests, the president of Bolivia was forced to terminate its water privatization contract with Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of Bechtel.

“The privatization of water has simply been a failure everywhere in the world. It has failed in the global south, it has failed in the United States and it is not working in the EU,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Europe.

“It is crucial that all MEPs in the European Parliament sign this written declaration to send a clear message that water is not for profit and that access to water needs to be protected as an affordable public good and part of the global commons,” urged Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe.

Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org