EU to refer Slovenia to the European Court of Justice over waste water
The European Commission said it will refer Slovenia to the European Court of Justice for failure to comply with the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.
The Directive requires Member States to ensure that urban agglomerations – towns, cities, settlements – properly collect and treat their waste waters, thus eliminating or reducing all their undesirable effects, the Commission said in a press release on February 18.
The European Green Deal steers the EU towards a Zero Pollution ambition. Full implementation of the standards enshrined in EU legislation is important to effectively protect human health and safeguard the natural environment.
According to the Commission, Slovenia should have been fully compliant with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive requirements since 2016, according to its agreements under the Accession Treaty. However, four agglomerations with a population of over 10,000 (Ljubljana, Trbovlje, Kočevje, and Loka) do not comply with such requirements because urban waste water entering collecting systems is not subject to the appropriate level of treatment before being discharged.
In addition, the agglomerations Kočevje, Trbovlje, and Loka fail to meet additional requirements of the Directive related to sensitive areas, as urban waste water entering collecting systems is not subject to more stringent treatment before being discharged into those areas, the press release read.
The Commission said it sent a letter of formal notice to the Slovenian authorities in February 2017, followed by a reasoned opinion in 2019. Although the Slovenian authorities have shared monitoring data aimed to show compliance with the requirements of the Directive, the deficiencies and gaps therein identified lead the Commission to conclude that the authorities have failed to prove compliance for the above-mentioned agglomerations.
