EC raps Greece over water
The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled that Greece has failed to adequately protect and manage its water resources. All European Union member states have been obliged since 2004 to conduct regular inspections on the quality of rivers, lakes and underground water sources, to evaluate the impact of industry and agriculture on the water and to report to the European Commission with updates. Greece has failed to do this adequately, the court ruled. Meanwhile, the EC rapped Greece for failing to observe minimum health and safety standards in handling animal byproducts not destined for human consumption, such as bones, feet, heads and intestines. According to the EC, Greece fails to respect EU standards governing the collection, transport, storage, processing, use and disposal of these products. This is a potentially dangerous practice as some animal byproducts can cause «mad cow disease» – Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) – if fed to cows, the EC remarked.
