Sewage: French politicians hit out at UK over English Channel ‘dumping ground’

The UK is putting the environment, fishermen’s livelihoods and public health at risk by pumping sewage into the sea, three French MEPs have said.

In a joint statement, the three politicians accused the UK of neglecting its environmental commitments as sewage polluted the waters of the English Channel and the North Sea.

“We can’t tolerate that the environment, the economic activity of our fishermen and the health of our citizens are put in danger due to the repeated negligence of the UK in its management of its wastewater,” said Stephanie Yon-Courtin, a member of the European Union’s committee on fisheries and one of the statement’s signatories. “The Channel and the North Sea are not dumping grounds.”

Nathalie Loiseau, president of the delegation to the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly, said the UK had violated the principle of “non-regression” on environmental protection levels agreed to in the EU-UK trade deal and called for a response from the European Commission.

Pierre Karleskind said “we cannot accept” that the UK “forgets” the environmental commitments it made during the Brexit process and “challenges” efforts made by Europeans over the past 20 years.

“Since its exit from the European Union, the UK has ignored environmental requirements when it comes to the quality of its water,” the three politicians said in the statement. “However, as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and a party to the trade and cooperation deal [with the EU], the UK has committed to protecting the seas which surround it and which we share.”

All three of the French politicians are members of president Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche party.

The statement follows public warnings in the UK about pollution at more than 50 beaches after companies discharged sewage into the sea and after new figures revealed that sewage has been pumped into the environment in England and Wales more than a million times in the past five years.

Between 2016 and 2021, sewage was spilt at least 1,261,498 times in the two countries, according to Environment Agency data obtained through a freedom of information request by the Labour Party.

Last year, on average, a spill lasted for more than seven hours.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavillion, said the sewage scandal showed “that our government’s persistent negligence of our natural environment is now further sullying our reputation abroad”.

“Our government has taken a wrecking ball to the health and wellbeing of the natural world at large,” she told The Independent. “If we are to restore our precious waterways for generations to come, this lame duck government must go.”

Alex Sobel, Labour’s shadow minister for nature recovery and the domestic environment, said it was “not surprising” that other countries were starting to notice the “stink”.

“Conservative ministers have failed to stop water companies spoiling family summers and hitting resort businesses, with beach closures, polluted rivers and toxic lakes this Bank Holiday weekend,” he told The Independent.

Hugo Tagholm, CEO of marine conservation and campaigning charity Surfers Against Sewage, said French MEPs and the European public have “every right” to be angry.

“This sewage stench is wafting across European waters and it has to stop,” he said. “It’s time for the UK to shed its image as the dirty man of Europe and clean up our act."

Paul de Zylva, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said “pollution doesn’t respect borders”.

“If the UK wants to avoid being dubbed ‘the Dirty Man of Europe’ again the government must keep this pledge and do far more to prevent sewage polluting our seas and waterways,” he said. “Our European neighbours are right to be concerned – and could explore legal routes to force the UK to keep its international commitments.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “It is simply not true that we have exempted ourselves of strict targets on water quality. The Environment Act has made our laws even stronger on water quality than when we were in the EU, from targets to tackle nutrient pollution to new powers to tackle harmful substances in our waters.

“We have also made it law for water companies to reduce the frequency and volume of discharges from storm overflows and made it law for water companies to install new monitors to report in real time any sewage discharges in their area.”

Tim McPhie, a spokesperson at the European Commission, said that the letter, sent to Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European Union’s commissioner for the environment, oceans and fisheries on Wednesday, would be replied to in due course.

The Commission has not yet had any contact with UK authorities and there was nothing specific on storm water overflows within the trade and cooperation agreement between the EU and the UK, he said.