January 20 2006

To: Jeroen van der Sommen,
European Regional Coordinator

Thank you for forwarding the draft "European Regional Document". An in-depth response to the text is impossible with such short notice (less than 24-hours deadline). However, while there might be recommendations in the text that we could agree with, we also notice the absence of many of the most important concerns of NGOs, unions and other European stakeholders. One suggestion for dealing with this reality is that the title and introduction to your document (and other documents submitted to the World Water Forum secretariat) should clarify that this is the contribution from some European stakeholders, without presenting this as European consensus positions.

Examples of the concerns of NGOs, unions and other European stakeholder that are not included in the document are the five recommendations presented yesterday in a letter to the EU Council Working Party on International Environment Negotiations (see also attached):

- Access to clean water should be recognised as a human right, similar to the internationally recognised human right to food.
- A recognition that a wide range of water privatisation initiatives (most often described as "public-private partnerships") have not delivered in developing countries in the way that they were expected to.
- A recognition that while some public water companies are poorly performing, public sector reform processes can lead to major improvements. Public-public partnerships which match up well- performing public utilities with those that are performing less well to share expertise so as to drive up standards, on a not-for-profit basis, deserve ambitious political and financial support from European governments.
- Donors including those at an international level, should not set economic policy conditions such as water privatisation or private sector participation, when agreeing loan, aid and debt relief / cancellation deals.
- Water should not be included in any international trade agreement on services, including the General Agreement on Trade in Services at the World Trade Organisation and the Economic Partnership Agreements that are currently under negotiation.
The attached letter also expresses our concerns about the European regional preparation process, for instance that "outreach to and inclusion of civil society has been very limited and the draft position papers therefore fail reflect the opinion of a broad range of European stakeholders".

The remarks specifically refer to the two documents posted on your website: the "European contribution to the WWF4 Ministerial Declaration - Proposed input to the future Ministerial Declaration" (Mexico World Water Forum, European Regional Coordinating Committee, December 15, 2005) and the draft "European annex to the WWF4 Ministerial Declaration". With all respect, it is impossible for us to have confidence in a process in which the drafting of key documents is left to the President of AquaFed (the International Federation of Private Water Operators), the lobby group of global water multinationals. We consider the two draft texts to be highly unbalanced and far from representative of "the European experience and actions" (quote from the intro of "European annex to the WWF4 Ministerial Declaration").

When describing the "European experience and actions", it would for instance be logical to include the decision of the European Parliament on 11th of March 2004 that the management of water should not be subject to the rules of the internal market ("Miller Report on Internal Market Strategy - Priorities 2003-2006"). In a representative overview of "the European experience and actions" it would also be important to include the revision of the Dutch drinking water law which now explicitly rules out any role for private operators in drinking water delivery (February 2005). Taking such collective decisions on the national level is entirely legitimate and reflects real concerns about leaving water delivery to the market mechanism and to private companies that are first and foremost accountable to their shareholders, not the public interest. It would be very relevant to mention that in many European countries drinking water is exclusively provided by public operators, to the satisfaction of the citizens of these countries, who according to opinion polls do not have any wish for privatisation or public- private partnerships.

Yours sincerely,

Majda Bouchanine, Friends of the Earth, France
Vicky Cann, World Development Movement, United Kingdom
Jan-Willem Goudriaan, European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU)
Olivier Hoedeman Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Satoko Kishimoto, Transnational Institute (TNI)
Tom Kucharz, Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
Victor Lopez, Plataforma por la Defensa de los Servicios Públicos Madrid, Spain
Carlos Ruiz, ATTAC Madrid, Spain
Annette von Schönfeld, Bread for the World, Germany
Joe Zacune, War on Want, United Kingdom