Collection and Treatment of Urban Waste Water
On 31 May 2018, in case C-251/17 Commission v Italy, the European Court of Justice ordered Italy to pay a lump sum of €25 million and a fine of more than €30,112,500 for every six months of delay for failing to implement EU law on the collection and treatment of urban waste water within the time limit. The computation of the six-month delay began on 31 May 2018 until full compliance with a previous ECJ judgment of 19 July 2012 in which the ECJ had already condemned Italy for the same issue. In the judgement of 19 July 2012, the Court of Justice held that by not taking the necessary measure to guarantee that 109 agglomerations situated in Italian territory are provided, where necessary, with urban waste water collecting systems and/or urban waste water treatment systems meeting the requirements of Directive 91/271, the Italian Republic had not met its obligations under the EU Treaties. The time limit expired on 11 February 2016 and since Italy had still not taken the measures necessary as were ordered in the judgement of 2012, the European Commission brought about a second action against Italy seeking out the imposition of financial penalties: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-05/cp180074en.pdf
