The European Commission (EC) decided today to file a claim against Bulgaria and Romania before the Court of Justice of the European Union due to unfulfilled obligations for the collection and treatment of urban waste water, according to the European directive. The directive aims to protect human health and the environment by requiring urban waste water to be collected and treated before it is discharged into the environment.
Cities must build the necessary infrastructure to collect and treat urban wastewater. Uncollected or untreated wastewater can put human health at risk and contaminate lakes, rivers, soil, coastal and groundwater. Bulgaria and Romania benefited from derogations to comply with this directive.
In Bulgaria, 10 cities with over 10,000 inhabitants do not fulfill the requirements of the directive on sewage systems.
In 20 major cities, urban wastewater entering sewer systems is not treated adequately. 30 large cities in Bulgaria do not provide stricter treatment before discharge of wastewater in sensitive areas. All these agglomerations had to fulfill the requirements by December 31, 2010, reports the correspondent of BNT in Brussels.
The European Commission sent Bulgaria an official notification letter in July 2017, followed by a reasoned opinion in May 2020.
The Commission considers that the previous efforts of the authorities of Bulgaria and Romania are insufficient, and is therefore bringing a claim against Bulgaria and Romania before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The European Green Deal aims for zero pollution to effectively protect human health, protect the environment and achieve climate neutrality. According to the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, Member States must have sewage systems for all settlements with at least 2,000 inhabitants. Where the creation of a sewerage system is not justified, in particular because it would lead to excessive costs, individual or other suitable systems may be used instead, provided they achieve the same level of environmental protection.
Member States must also ensure that discharges from urban waste water treatment plants serving settlements with at least 2,000 inhabitants correspond to at least the level of secondary treatment (consisting of the treatment of organic substances in urban waste water) before be released into the environment. If a settlement discharges its wastewater into a sensitive area, it must ensure that it undergoes treatment that is more stringent than secondary treatment.
Although compliance with the directive is primarily the responsibility of national authorities, Bulgaria and Romania have benefited from significant EU funding for urban wastewater treatment through cohesion policy projects.
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