24/08/2015
The
Sunday Express was at its offensive worst this weekend, heading a piece about bathing water quality as: "EU bureaucrats to brand popular British beaches 'UNFIT for swimming' in latest barmy move".
In typical coprophagic style, the story was also picked up by the
Telegraph, which asks whether "new EU regulations" make 25 English beaches "unfit for swimming" overnight.
A point of interest here, though, is that these are not "new EU regulations" â they are not even EU regulations. We are talking about
Directive 2006/7/EC of 15 February 2006, otherwise known as the Bathing Water Directive. This replaced Directive 76/160/EEC, based on a
Commission Proposal published in 2002, and now coming into force via
UK Regulations promulgated in 2013, and coming into force this year.
The amended standard takes into account
WHO standards which we would doubtless have adopted of our own volition, even outside the EU â not least because of the vital role of water quality in peoples' choice of beaches, and the importance of beaches to the tourist industry. Effectively, though, this is the first substantive upgrade for 40 years, with over a decade warning and the UK regulations well-reported in
the media at the time, including the
Telegraph and
the BBC.
Given the lengthy gestation of these new standards, there is actually little excuse for not being prepared to meet them and, while there may be a good case for the UK being able to set its own standards and own priorities, this is not a bandwagon that the "no" campaign should be keen to mount, without taking the very greatest of care.
Over term, environment is one of the EU's most popular policy domains and, within that, surveys
have shown that there is majority support in the UK (56 percent) for greater EU action on water issues.
Furthermore, the EU "Blue Flag" scheme (attesting to bathing water quality) has one of the
highest recognition factors in the UK as an EU benefit, gaining 50 percent overall. Crucially, that percentage is even higher in some of the more Eurosceptic areas, scoring (for instance) 60 percent in the South West, as opposed to 42.3 percent in London.
As
Friends of the Earth are
quick to point out, therefore, there is considerable concern that leaving the EU will lead to a weakening of UK environment standards, and especially a loss of momentum in the programme of continuous improvement in bathing water quality.
On balance, therefore, the Bathing Water Directive is an asset to the "yes" campaign, and attacks on water quality standards are more likely to lose votes in the referendum than gain them.
Thus, as
Complete Bastard points out, we must be far more nuanced in our approach. While there are some limited gains to be made from removing laws, generalised foam-flecked ranting about "EU regulations" is not going to benefit the campaign.
