Wastewater not treated by Sicily in Courmayeur (Valle d’Aosta). For this reason, Italy will have to pay a flat -rate sum of 10 million euros. This is the sentence of the Court of Justice of the European Union because our country has not respected the “WASTE Water Treatment Directive” directive of 21 May 1991. A delay of over thirty years and despite the previous sentence of 2014 which updated the delay of Rome in 41 urban agglomerations. But the European Commission could not accept further delays and for this reason promoted a new appeal. Italy will have to do soon because a penalty of 13,687,500 euros will take each semester.
The Directive of 1991
The Directive aims to protect human health and the environment by imposing the collection and treatment of urban waste water before unloading in nature. The Member States had to equip any urban agglomeration with sewage networks for the treatment of waste water. Two deadlines were established: by 31 December 2000 for those with a number of inhabitants equivalent and greater than 15 thousand; by 31 December 2005 for those between 2 thousand and 15 thousand.
Delay
In April 2014, the Court of Justice with a sentence had considered that Italy had not implemented the directive throughout the national territory, as the urban waste water were neither collected nor correctly treated in 41 urban agglomerations. The European Commission had therefore filed an appeal for default aimed at the imposition of pecuniary sanctions. Italy at the expiry of the term set in the letter of default (18 May 2018) was still late on five agglomerations: Castellammare del Golfo I, Cinisi, Terrasini, Trappeto (Sicily) and Courmayeur. On the date of the hearing before the Court (November 13, 2024) the delay had reduced to four entities. But the Luxembourgese judges have still decided to condemn Italy for all the delays accumulated in the application of the directive.
