Following a letter of formal notice in 2017 and a reasoned opinion in 2019, the European Commission decided on Monday 16 December to refer Slovakia to the EU Court of Justice for failing to fulfil its obligations regarding the collection and treatment of urban waste water.
The urban waste water treatment directive obliges Member States to collect and treat urban waste water before it is discharged into the environment, which requires the necessary infrastructure to be put in place. Slovakia has already brought a number of agglomerations into compliance, but the Commission considers that these efforts are still insufficient.
This case concerns 25 Slovak agglomerations. 17 of them do not carry out secondary treatment before discharging waste water. In 9 agglomerations, the urban waste water entering the collection systems does not undergo additional biological treatment to eliminate nitrogen and/or phosphorus.
Slovakia joined the EU in 2004 and had until 31 December 2015 to comply with the directive. The Commission pointed out that the country had received substantial funding from the EU for this purpose, through the cohesion policy. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)