Brussels, 07/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 7 November (case C-23/13), the Court of Justice of the EU ruled against France for failing to comply with the directive on urban waste water (91/27/EEC) in eight urban areas. The ruling comes after referral by the Commission on 17 January this year following a reasoned opinion setting 17 December 2008 as the final date for France to comply with the directive.
Under the directive, member states must ensure that: - all urban areas with a population equivalent (PE) of more than 15,000 (PE being the unit of measure for the average burden of biodegradable organic pollution) should be equipped with collecting systems by 31 December 2000; - residual waste water entering collecting systems must be subject to secondary treatment or an equivalent treatment before being discharged; - and discharges from urban waste water treatment plants must comply with the requirements of the directive pertaining to the discharge of waste water and result assessment.
In its ruling, the Court notes that France did not ensure the collection of urban waste water of the agglomeration of Basse-Terre, where the PE is above 15,000, or the treatment of waste water from the urban areas of Ajaccio-Sanguinaires, Basse-Terre, Bastia-Nord, Cayenne-Lebond and Saint Denis, where the PE is also above 15,000. Those areas should have been equipped with waste water treatment plants and have been subject to secondary treatment or equivalent treatment, within the time set by the directive. France did not challenge the fact that it had failed to comply. It had, however, said that compliance for the treatment of waste water could be ensured in the course of 2014 for the towns of Ajaccio-Sanguinaires, Basse-Terre, Bastia-Nord, Cayenne-Leblond and Saint-Denis and that the collecting system for Basse-Terre would be in line with the directive during May 2013. The Court did not take account of these arguments, considering that the existence of non-compliance was to be assessed in relation to the situation of the member state, as it was at the time when the deadline set by the reasoned opinion addressed by the Commission (see above) expired. (FG/transl.jl)