(Finance) – The European Commission punishes Italy. Today Brussels decided to refer our country to the Court of Justice of the European Union for not having fully respected the collection and processing obligations established by urban waste water treatment directive. The directive, which aims to protect health and the environment, requires that urban waste water be collected and treated before being discharged into the environment. Untreated wastewater can pose risks to human health and pollutes lakes, rivers, land, coastal and groundwater. Information submitted by Italy highlighted widespread non-compliance with the Directive in a total of 179 Italian agglomerations.
In the case of 36 agglomerations Italy still needs to ensure the availability of waste water collection systems (or individual systems or other adequate systems, in justified cases). In 130 agglomerations, Italy continues to not properly treat the wastewater collected. For agglomerations discharging waste water into sensitive areas, more rigorous waste water treatment is necessary. In 12 Italian agglomerations this obligation is not yet respected. Finally, in 165 agglomerations Italy does not guarantee that water discharges satisfy the required quality conditions over time.
The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Italy in June 2018 and subsequently a reasoned opinion in July 2019. Despite some progress, many agglomerations continue to fail to comply with the obligations of the Directive. The Commission considers that the efforts made so far by the Italian authorities have been insufficient and has therefore decided to refer Italy to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Pursuant to urban waste water treatment directiveMember States must have a sewerage system for all agglomerations with at least 2 thousand inhabitants. If the establishment of a sewerage system is not justified, in particular because it would entail excessive costs, individual or other appropriate systems may be used, provided that they guarantee the same level of environmental protection. Member States must also ensure that discharges from urban waste water treatment plants in agglomerations with at least 2,000 inhabitants comply at least with the secondary treatment level (consisting of the treatment of organic material in urban waste water) before being released into the environment.
This infringement procedure represents the fourth infringement case opened in relation to the incorrect application of the urban waste water treatment directive in Italy (and is added to the infringement procedures INFR2004 (2034), INFR2009 (2034) and INFR2014 (2059). There is no overlap between these four cases, as each of them concerns different violations of the obligations established by the Directive. Overall the four procedures concern more than 900 agglomerations.