Brussels, 11/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Commission decides to move to the next stage of infringement proceedings against several Member States which are continuing to break Community environment legislation. We detail below the infringement and stage of the proceedings for each case:
Sulphur content of liquid fuels
Greece, Italy and Spain will be sent a Reasoned Opinion (second stage of the infringement proceedings under Article 226 of the Treaty) for failing to transpose Directive 1999/32/EC into national law laying down the maximum levels of sulphur allowed in heavy fuel and diesel (such as heating fuel and bunker fuel). The deadline for transposition was July 2000 and despite receiving a first warning letter in November 2000, none of the three Member States has transposed the legislation. Spain has published a White Paper in this connection but the legislation has not yet been adopted. Italy and Greece have not even replied to the Commission's letters.
Treating urban waste water
Spain will be brought before the Court of Justice (third stage of the infringement proceedings) for failing to properly identify "sensitive" areas in line with Directive 91/271/EC, in other words untreated wastewater containing too much phosphorous and nitrates and therefore contributing to the eutrophication of rivers and seas or water badly polluted by untreated waste water.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom will be sent a Reasoned Opinion for the following:
Germany: inadequate legislation, in particular in Saxony-Anhalt (which has set January 2004 instead of December 1998) as the deadline for meeting the tighter wastewater standards for sensitive areas) and failing to correctly implement the monitoring requirements in Meclenburg-Vorpommern and North Rhine-Westphalia. France: identification of areas in 1999 that should have been identified in 1993, overly restrictive approach to fixing criteria for identifying sensitive areas, and the failure to ensure necessary standards by the end of 1998 governing discharges in sensitive areas. The United Kingdom: ongoing failures to identify euthrophic waters or those in danger of eutrophication and shortcomings in the review of sensitive areas in Northern Ireland.
Directive 91/271/EC requires cities, towns and other population centres to meet minimum waste water collection and treatment standards within deadlines fixed by the Directive (end of 1998, 2000 and 2005 depending on sensitivity of the areas in question). In a press release, the Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallström, stressed that, "missed deadlines for wastewater treatment mean less formal and practical protection for our water resources, including bathing waters and sources of drinking water. Furthermore, a wrong identification may result in an inadequate level of treatment, and require the subsequent costly upgrading of wastewater treatment plants".