Mr. Jorge Rodríguez Romero:

I will try. Article 9.4 is an exemption to an obligation. Exemptions have to be interpreted narrowly. Article 9.4 provides for an exemption to an obligation to establish a water pricing policy in accordance with the cost recovery principle and the polluter pays principle, the latter principle being part of the treaty, by the way. The exemption, therefore, needs to be interpreted narrowly.

The context relates to before the first river basin management plan was adopted. We wrote that to apply Article 9.4, we believe that it must have been established practice by the time of adoption of the directive and the practice must have been consistently maintained until the adoption of the river basin management plan. Then, in respect of that river basin management plan, the member states would have to give the reasons for not applying a water pricing policy according to the cost recovery and polluter pays principles as long as they met the objectives of the Water Framework Directive.

It is a pity that Mr. Murphy has left the room. This is the sense of the addition that we made in 2010 to the established practice at the time of the adoption of the directive. The idea was to avoid member states abolishing water charges in 2006, for example, and then claiming that the situation was established practice. It is not a symmetrical issue. It has to be interpreted narrowly because it is an exemption.