(27 February 2013) The Parliament of Andalucía, the most populous region of Spain, is voting tomorrow a motion to support the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) ‘Water is a Human Right’.
(27 February 2013) The first ever European Citizens Initiative (ECI) to collect over 1 million signatures welcomes the political debate that is taking place all over Europe on water and sanitation. The positive impact of the citizens’ mobilisation is already being felt in many member states and at EU level.
(26 February 2013) In a letter sent to the European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU) CUPE states that it is a tremendous accomplishment and that it helps the Canadian public employees as well in their fight against liberalization and privatization of water services. The awareness raised in Europe will aid in our collective (global) efforts to implement the UN recognized right to water and sanitation.
Since the beginning of the first up and running European citizens Initiative several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have expressed their support for the European Citizens Initiative ‘Water is a Human Right’.
The European Commission has proposed a new directive on concessions. Many citizens have interpreted this as a new attempt to privatise water. While strictly speaking this directive does not force municipalities to privatise water services, it will put pressure on municipalities to put concessions on the market. It Is the expressed aim of the Commission to facilitate competition and public-private partnerships with this directive. It is the latest in a long battle of multinational water corporations being served by the European Commission to open up water markets in Europe.
(February 2013) The German TV programme, Monitor, ran an item on the European Commission's plans to privatise water services in Europe's crisis hit countries on Thursday 13 December. Watch the broadcast (German spoken, text in English)
(Brussels, 11 February - EPSU Press Communication) Yesterday, the first up and running European Citizens Initiative (ECI) ‘Water is a Human Right’ made history as also being the first ECI in the history of the European Union to have collected over 1 million signatures.
News Splash n°15 : In the past few weeks our campaign has seen the number of signatures rocket up from 300.000 to 900.000! Most signatures have come from Germany and Austria. Thanks to all the people in those countries for promoting our European Citizens’ Initiative! In all other countries
(5 February 2013) Because our campaign went like a rocket from 300.000 to 900.000 signatures and is still going strong, we have raised our target for September to 2 Million signatures!
The first up and running European Citizens Initiative (ECI) - Water is a Human Right – is more than 4/5ths of the way towards the target of a million online signatures.
Erwin Pelzig, German comedian did a great performance in TV programme Neues aus der Anstalt last week. It gave a huge boost to our signature collection. Thank you very much, Erwin!
