On 21 March the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament invited Piero Bruni (Associazione Lago di Bolsena) to present his petition for a 3rd examination. Bruni denounced the persistent deterioration of the lake’s condition, caused by the introduction of nutrients from the disastrous sewer network and from agriculture. He noted that this situation involved violations of three important European directives: the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/CEE), the Water Framework Directive (DQA, 2000/60/CE) and the Habitat Directive (92/43/CEE).

So far interventions from the European Commission have been limited to demanding improvements to the sewer network, as required by the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Regarding the ecological state of the lake the Commission had deemed, on the basis of data furnished by the Italian State, that the body of water didn’t present significant risks of eutrophication and its condition was good.

This time however the European Commission has considered the ecological degrade of the lake a possible violation of the principle of non-degradation of the Water Framework Directive and will carry out further investigations regarding this.

The fundamental cause of risks for the lake must be the object of this procedure: the absence of a co-ordinated and efficient management of the whole ecosystem. The introduction of a form of lake management is also a fundamental requirement of the three European directives in question, and this is the ultimate point raised by the petitioner.

Link to the complete article in Osservatorio Ambientale Lago di Bolsena.

You can watch the third hearing of the petition n° 2191/2013 here.