Dans un revirement choquant pour l’environnement europ\u00e9en, la Commission europ\u00e9enne s’est engag\u00e9e \u00e0 revoir et \u00e0 r\u00e9viser la directive-cadre sur l’eau d’ici le deuxi\u00e8me trimestre 2026 dans le cadre du plan d’action RESourceEU, afin de promouvoir \u00ab l’acc\u00e8s aux mati\u00e8res premi\u00e8res essentielles dans l’UE \u00bb.<\/p>\n
Cette annonce intervient peu apr\u00e8s les pressions du lobby minier EuroMines, qui demandait plus de d\u00e9rogations et des d\u00e9lais prolong\u00e9s dans l\u2019application de la DCE.
\nLes ONG, r\u00e9unies dans Living Rivers Europe, d\u00e9noncent une d\u00e9cision imprudente qui risque de compromettre la protection des ressources en eau, affaiblirait la protection des rivi\u00e8res et des zones humides, au profit du lobby minier. Living Rivers Europe rappelle que la DCE est un pilier essentiel de la protection de l\u2019eau en Europe, confirm\u00e9 par une \u00e9valuation r\u00e9cente, et exigent que toute r\u00e9vision repose sur des preuves scientifiques solides plut\u00f4t que sur les int\u00e9r\u00eats de quelques industries polluantes.
\nL\u2019exploitation mini\u00e8re entra\u00eene une contamination s\u00e9v\u00e8re des eaux par les m\u00e9taux lourds, mettant en danger la faune aquatique et la qualit\u00e9 de l\u2019eau potable.
\nLa r\u00e9vision est per\u00e7ue comme une concession aux industries extractives, au d\u00e9triment des citoyens et de l\u2019environnement. Elle cr\u00e9e un dangereux pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent de modification h\u00e2tive des lois sans \u00e9valuation scientifique ni contr\u00f4le d\u00e9mocratique.
\nRappel historique :
\no La DCE, adopt\u00e9e il y a 25 ans, est la pierre angulaire de la protection de l\u2019eau en Europe.
\no En 2019, une \u00e9valuation approfondie avait conclu que la directive \u00e9tait moderne et adapt\u00e9e, n\u00e9cessitant surtout une meilleure mise en \u0153uvre.
\no Tout r\u00e9cemment, la liste des polluants des eaux de surface a \u00e9t\u00e9 actualis\u00e9e et deux nouvelles exemptions ont \u00e9t\u00e9 introduites pour r\u00e9pondre aux demandes de certaines industries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lire le communiqu\u00e9 de presse en anglais :<\/em><\/p>\n European Commission’s reckless move risks derailing water protections<\/strong><\/p>\n PRESS RELEASE – Brussels, 4th December 2025.<\/p>\n In a shocking turn for Europe\u2019s environment, the European Commission has committed to reviewing and revising the Water Framework Directive by the second quarter of 2026 under the RESourceEU Action Plan, in order to promote \u201caccess to critical raw materials in the EU\u201d. This is an extremely worrying move, as such revision threatens to bring down European water standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n Commenting on the Commission\u2019s decision, the <\/strong>Living Rivers Europe coalition<\/strong><\/a>, said<\/strong>: \u201cThis is a very reckless decision: it will open the floodgates to further contamination of our waters and accelerate the destruction of our rivers, wetlands and wildlife. The Water Framework Directive is not just any law, it is Europe\u2019s frontline defence for clean, safe, and resilient water for millions of people. Dismantling its safeguards guts this protection, reducing it to a set of vague promises – leaving the future of our waters and wetland ecosystems at the mercy of powerful mining industry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The European Commission\u2019s (EC) decision to revise the Water Framework Directive<\/a> (WFD) is a concession to the metal and mining sectors. The Commission\u2019s RESource EU Action Plan<\/a> states that the WFD revision will help \u201cpromote access to critical raw materials in the EU\u201d<\/em>. The timing is striking: it comes just a week after EuroMines<\/a> (EU\u2019s biggest lobby for mining and metal industries) called on the EC<\/a> to expand the use of derogations under the WFD and postpone deadlines.<\/p>\n Mining activities are no light touch on the local populations and nature. Beyond the human rights implications<\/a>, mining leads to severe contamination of water with heavy metals from discharged mine effluent (liquid waste), which can severely harm wildlife and drinking water quality. Precious aquatic ecosystems should not suffer the consequences of industries\u2019 endless drive for profit. Weakening the WFD safeguards to facilitate mining will reverse hard-won gains in water quality across the continent.<\/p>\n This move sets yet another dangerous precedent, allowing for hasty legislative changes without proper scrutiny. The fact that the Commission is already committed to revising the WFD without proper evaluation and better regulation steps is simply unacceptable. This strikes at the heart of the European project and undermines the trust of Europeans in the Commission\u2019s commitment to protecting their future.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Commission seems determined to find any possible way to derail environmental laws, almost as if on a mission. It beggars belief that the von der Leyen II Commission is deciding to do, without proper evidence, what the von der Leyen I Commission ruled out after thorough evaluation,\u201d added the coalition.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Civil society organisations are urging the European Commission to properly evaluate whether the WFD needs revising, based on science and proper evidence and not on anecdotal evidence of a few polluting industries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes to editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dans un revirement choquant pour l’environnement europ\u00e9en, la Commission europ\u00e9enne s’est engag\u00e9e \u00e0 revoir et \u00e0 r\u00e9viser la directive-cadre sur l’eau d’ici le deuxi\u00e8me trimestre 2026 dans le cadre du plan d’action RESourceEU, afin de promouvoir \u00ab l’acc\u00e8s aux mati\u00e8res premi\u00e8res essentielles dans l’UE \u00bb. Cette annonce intervient peu apr\u00e8s les pressions du lobby minier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21,35,36],"tags":[60,295],"class_list":["post-22496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accueil-fr","category-living-rivers-europe","category-proteger","category-restaurer","tag-protectwater","tag-wfd-revision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ern.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n