Trans-European hydraulic networks: technological feasibility

In his own-initiative report, Juan de Dios IZQUERDO COLLADO (E, PES) considers main waterways and rivers to be examples of natural trans-European networks. But renewable water resources are distributed unevenly over the EU territory. Large areas of the EU are regularly faced with water source management problems with floods occuring in the basins of central and northern Europe, and structural supply shortages of water for human consumption in certains regions of southern Europe. The development of a trans-European network of hydrological infrastructures complementing the interconnections between basins would improve the present situation. The rapporteur called on the Commission to draw up a framework proposal setting out guidelines for the completion of the interconnection of the water basins in the EU, with a view to regulating water levels in crises of excess on shortage. Referring to the Provence Canal as an example to follow, the rapporteur called for a pilot project, linking up the Rhone basin with the isolated network of the Iberian peninsula. The French Languedoc-Roussillon region has a permanent water surplus. Substantial volumes of water are already transported as far as Montpellier. The rapporteur suggests the construction of a feeder canal serving Catalonia, consisting of a 320 km-long underground pipeline with pumping stations. �