The president of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, and French MEPs are concerned about pollution caused by these discharges and call on London to respect “environmental requirements of the European Union”.
Le Monde with AFP
French elected officials question the United Kingdom. The President of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, alerted the government, Friday, August 26, on British wastewater releases untreated in the English Channel and the North Sea.
“The images, relayed by many international media, which show untreated wastewater dump in abundance in the English Channel and the North Sea from the beaches of the United Kingdom have aroused (…) a great concern due Pollution emanating from these discharges, “said Bertrand in a letter to the Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville.
” Ecological catastrophe “
If this situation “already denounced by many associations is not new, it seems to worsen from Brexit, insofar as the United Kingdom has exempt itself from European environmental regulations”, a- he added. “A British legislative standard (…) exempts the water companies from the obligation to treat wastewater before rejecting them at sea,” said the regional president.
This practice of companies constitutes “a real ecological disaster,” he said, wishing the French government asking the United Kingdom to respect for the European Union environmental requirements in matters of wastewater rejection untreated “.
Three French MEPs have already called on the European Commission to act on the subject. “We cannot accept that the United Kingdom sits on its environmental commitments made at Brexit and calls into question the efforts that have been made by Europeans over the past twenty years,” wrote one of the MEPs, Pierre Karleskind, chairman of the European Parliament Fishing Commission.
The European Commission said on Thursday that it would respond soon. “We are counting on the United Kingdom to honor all its legal obligations (…) in order to prevent any health and environmental damage”, tweeted, Friday, the environment commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevicius.