Italy has been found guilty of violating waste water regulations, leading to the Court of Justice of the EU’s decision, on Thursday 31 May, to condemn Italy to pay a lump sum of €25 million and a penalty of over €30 million for every six months’ delay (see EUROPE 11790, 11685).
The Court therefore considers it appropriate to order Italy (Case C-351/17) to pay into the EU budget a fine of €30,112,500 for every six months of delay in implementing the measures necessary to comply with the 2012 ruling, that fine being due from 31 May until full compliance with the 2012 judgement. In addition, given infringements committed previously by Italy regarding the collection and treatment of urban waste water, the Court condemns Italy to pay a lump sum of €25 million.
In its ruling of 19 July 2012, the Court had deemed that, having failed to take the necessary provisions to ensure that 109 agglomerations were equipped with water treatment systems, Italy has failed in its obligations under Directive 91/271/EEC. Upon expiry of the time-limit on 11 February 2016, considering that Italy had still not taken the necessary measures to comply with the 2012 ruling, the Commission brought before the Court a second action against that country for failure to fulfil its obligations and sought the imposition of financial penalties.
The Court rules that, by the deadline of 11 February 2016, Italy had not taken all the measures necessary for implementation of the 2012 ruling. The Court takes the view that Italy’s non-compliance is particularly serious in that the lack of waste water systems is likely to have an adverse effect on the environment. It notes that the number of agglomerations (74) in respect of which, on the date of the hearing, Italy had not provided proof of the existence of urban waste water collecting and treatment systems in compliance with the directive is high, even though that number has been reduced in comparison with the judgement of 2012 (109 at that time). The Court underlines that the waste water collecting and treatment systems should have been compliant with the provisions of the directive by 31 December 2000 at the latest. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)