Appeal to Council of State regarding pricing of water

This is the second time that unions, other organisations and citizens have asked the Council of State to annul a ministerial decision on the pricing method for water, arguing that it is treated as a product rather than as a public utility. The first time was when the Fourth Section of the CoS, with its unanimous Decision annulled the entirety of the 2017 Joint Ministerial Decision (under the SYRIZA government) concerning water pricing rules.

In that decision, the Council of State emphasised that "water is not a commercial product" and noted that "from the provisions of the directive and its purpose—ensuring water quality and managing it not as a commercial product but as a public resource—it follows that national policies on water supply services, including pricing, are designed by Member States as public service policies. These policies aim to achieve the environmental goals of the directive, taking into account the characteristics of each river basin and considering social and economic impacts."

Now, there is a renewed request to annul Joint Ministerial Decision regarding the "determination of general rules for the costing and pricing of water services, improvement measures, procedures and methods for recovering costs of water services across its various uses," as it is deemed unconstitutional and contrary to European legislation.

The appellants include employees in public and municipal companies responsible for water management, environmental organisations and citizens, represented by unions such as the Scientific Personnel Association of EYDAP, the Association of Engineers of EYDAP, the Sewerage Sector Employees’ Union of EYDAP, the Employees’ Union of EYATH, the Panhellenic Federation of Employees of DEYA, the Association of Employees of the Decentralised Administration of the Aegean, the Syros Environmental Quality Observatory, and citizens from across the country.

In their announcement, they stress that the new ministerial decision adopts a purely accounting-based pricing policy applied indiscriminately nationwide, without considering the specific characteristics of each river basin. This approach results in violations of constitutional provisions, weakens the constitutionally mandated public and municipal control over pricing and creates uncertainty about the continued provision of water under public service conditions—namely, with safety, universality, high quality and affordability.

The "removal" of the mechanism and responsibility for pricing from public bodies (government and municipalities) and its transfer to the Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy & Water will inevitably lead, within a few years, to water becoming as expensive as electricity.

GIORGOS KATSAITIS