Brussels, 13/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to send Portugal a "reasoned opinion" inviting it to implement, post haste, a ruling by the Court of Justice (June 1998) which notes that this Member State did not have an action plan aiming to improve the quality of surface water to be used as drinking water. The directive in question is 75/440/EEC. The Court had noted that Portugal had not established the action plan that would have allowed water quality to be improved, and the Commission then noted that the Court ruling had not been put into practice.
Portugal had presented an action plan at the end of 1998 but the Commission considered it as being "manifestly inadequate". The Commission had therefore initiated the second infringement procedure. As no response to the letter of warning has been forthcoming from Lisbon, the Commission is now moving on to the reasoned opinion stage. EUROPE recalls that the procedure for failure to implement a Court ruling may result in the proposal to impose a financial penalty on the Member State concerned.
Environment Commissioner Mrs Wallström stressed how essential it is for EU citizens to have safe drinking water, and for the directive in question to be correctly implemented in all Member States.