UK sewage dumping could be breach of Brexit pact, says EU Commission

The UK’s increased dumping of raw sewage in the Channel could be a breach of its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the European Commission told MEPs on Thursday (1 September).

Addressing the European Parliament’s fisheries committee on Thursday, a European Commission official said that the EU executive was closely monitoring the situation. 

“We express our deep concern about these uncontrolled discharges and their potential impacts on the marine environment and on fisheries,” a senior official said. 

While the UK is no longer bound by EU environmental standards since leaving the bloc, it had agreed “not back down from the levels of environmental protection in place”, said the Commission official. 

She added that the Trade and Cooperation Agreement includes an obligation not to regress from standards covering the protection and preservation of the marine environment. The TCA also requires the UK not to weaken or reduce levels of environmental protection. 

Water treatment facilities in the UK are allowed to discharge raw sewage into seas and rivers if they are inundated by heavy rainfall and risk flooding. A summer of consistently hot temperatures and drought has left the ground unable to absorb recent heavy rainfall.  

The dumping of raw sewage has more than doubled in recent years following heavy cuts to the budget of the UK’s Environment Agency. 

The UK government has issued pollution warnings at dozens of beaches on the south coast of England urging people not to swim in the sea but has denied that it is in breach of its agreements with the EU. 

The government’s environment, food and rural affairs ministry has said that since leaving the EU, the UK has passed laws requiring water companies to reduce the frequency and volume of discharges from storm overflows and to install new monitors to immediately report any sewage discharges in their area. 

Last week, three French EU lawmakers wrote a letter urging the Commission to take legal or political action against the UK, arguing that the sewage dumping was killing fish and damaging the marine environment. 

Pierre Karleskind, the chairman of the EU Parliament’s fisheries committee, who was one of the three MEPs, said there was “an alarm bell ringing”.  

“We are directly and immediately concerned by the releasing of untreated sewage into the seas. I know our British neighbours aren’t particularly happy with it either,” he said. Public pressure in the UK is growing for the government to take action to prevent the privatised water companies from dumping sewage. 

Earlier this week, MEPs debated a draft regulation designed to uphold the EU’s rights under both the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that now governs EU-UK trade. The bill, which will include mechanisms to suspend parts of the deal and impose sanctions, is expected to be adopted by the end of the year. 

[Edited by Alice Taylor/Nathalie Weatherald]

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