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WATER and its pollution are major European Communities (EC) concerns, and a number of European Com m ission directives have been aimed at improving the quality and protection of water in all its aspects. High standards have been set for the quality of both drinking and bathing water, and Member States risk punitive action if they do not meet the required standards within stipulated deadlines. Further directives relate to fish habitats and the discharge of pollutants. The EC have also signed several international conventions designed to reduce the level of water pollution. (See also Environmental Policy.)

The W ERNER REPORT is the name of a 1970 plan for econom ic and m onetary union (EMU) prepared by a committee, headed by Pierre Werner (1913-2000), then Prime Minister of Luxembourg, which was appointed by the 1969 Hague Summit. The Report emphasized the need for the European Communities to proceed simultaneously in co-ordinating and harmonizing economic policy, narrowing exchange-rate margins, integrating capital markets and establishing a common currency and a European Central Bank. It presented a three-stage programme for the implementation of full EMU by 1980, the deadline imposed by its remit. Although its views were accepted in a modified format by the Council of Ministers (see Council o f the European Union), the economic difficulties of the 1970s led to the programme’s abandonment. The question of full EMU was not considered again fully until Jacques Delors was appointed by the Council in 1988 to

consider the EM U question, and this led directly on this occasion to a specific title on EMU being inserted into the Treaty o f R om e by the Treaty on European Union.