Brussels, 15/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 15 October, Greece was ordered to pay a fixed sum of €10 million and a periodic fine of €3.64 million per semester of delay because of its delay in implementing the directive on urban waste water treatment.
The Court had already ruled against Greece in 2007, following a demand by the European Commission for failing to meet its obligations regarding the introduction of a system for collecting urban wastewater in agglomerations of more than 15,000 inhabitants. This ruling applied to 23 agglomerations, with Greece having until April 2011 for equipping these areas with systems for collecting and/or treating urban wastewater
In its ruling announced on Thursday (C-167/14), following a new demand from the European Commission, the Court pointed out that Greece had still not complied with the 2007 judgment in 6 of the 23 agglomerations concerned. The Court has decided to impose on Greece pecuniary sanctions but is, however, taking mitigating circumstances into consideration, such as the small number of agglomerations affected, the efforts made by the Greek authorities and the country's reduced capacity for making payments. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)