First European Citizens’ Initiative gets EU hearing: Water is a human right!

Public Services International is represented in the Right2Water initiative and PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli participated in the hearing. The ECI campaign has been championed by PSI’s European representative EPSU.

The Right2Water initiative collected 1.7 million signatures and was thus legible under the Lisbon Treaty to put demands directly to the European Parliament.

The public hearing was organised by the EP Environment Committee with the participation of the Committees for Petitions, and Internal Markets and Development.

Anne-Marie Perret, President of Right2Water and EPSU President, declared, “We should not privatise water services. We must keep water in public hands to ensure there is a democratic control close to the needs of the citizens.”

Jan Willem Goudriaan, Vice-President of Right2Water and EPSU Deputy General Secretary, said, "The message of our ECI is simple. Implement the human right to water, do not liberalise water services in the EU and do more to ensure people across the world have access to clean and safe water."

Read the EPSU press communication

Watch the European Parliament video of the hearing

See the photo gallery

Watch the video report on Euronews.