Since the objectives of this Directive, namely to ensure a high level of environmental protection and an improvement of the environmental quality of European freshwaters, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States alone but can rather, by reason of the transboundary nature of water pollution, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 TEU. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
