ABSTRACT
The EEC directive has given rise to a set of national regulations published in the countries.
It represents a profound change in philosophy: the former rules, based on potability criteria have been replaced by rules based on quality objectives. As we shall see later on, when difficulties occur over respecting the standards, particularly with regard to pesticides, discussions are often focused on the toxic nature of these products, whereas the real debate concerns the technical and economic problems created by the application of these quality criteria, and the time required before strict conformity can be reached: the debate is a political one.
