The European Court of Auditors believes that the agricultural sector should be held financially responsible for cleaning up drinking water pollution. The principle of 'the polluter pays' should also apply in agriculture, an idea welcomed by EU Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
The report examined how the 'polluter pays' principle is actually implemented in practice across EU countries and whether the cleanup costs are being passed on to taxpayers. Currently, in the EU, the principle that the polluter pays is explicitly applied only in environmental policy but not in agriculture.
However, the auditors said this should be reconsidered. They point out that currently it is mainly drinking water users who pay for the cleanup of (often chemical) contamination of groundwater. Moreover, this differs from country to country.
According to the Court of Auditors, the principle is also necessary in agriculture to efficiently and fairly achieve the ambitions of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. Agriculture is "the sector that most insists on clean water for irrigation but contributes the least." In the EU, 6 out of 10 surface waters, such as rivers and lakes, are chemically polluted and in poor ecological condition.
This is not the first time the auditors have called for such a measure. In their report issued last month on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and climate change, they made a similar call regarding the cleanup costs of nitrogen and agricultural CO2 greenhouse gases.
Asked about the idea of introducing the polluter pays principle into agricultural policy, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said he completely agreed with the conclusions. He may address this in 2023 when the financing of the Green Deal eco-schemes within the CAP is changed.