All other 26 member states submitted the required data to the European Commission for a summary assessment by the agreed deadlines. The information was required for the latest report on implementation of the Directive for the period 2007/2008.
The assessment shows that work is progressing well but that collection and treatment compliance rates could still improve. A statement by the Commission which accompanies the report says:
"The United Kingdom did not provide data within the agreed deadlines; consequently, their results on implementation of the UWWTD are not reflected in this 6th Report.!
The main findings of the report are:
- Most EU-15 urban waste water collection systems are very effective and capture 99% of their target waters
- The total area designated as sensitive (eutrophic or at risk of becoming eutrophic), and requiring more stringent treatment, has increased from 68% to 73% since the last report. This could partially indicate an increase of eutrophic waters, but also that Member States better recognise and protect their sensitive waters.
- There are still large variations regarding implementation of more stringent water treatment, but very high compliance rates have been reached in Austria, Netherlands and Germany; improvements were made in Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg and Sweden, and in the EU-12, especially in Lithuania.
- Waste water treatment is well advanced in big cities, with more stringent treatment installations in place for 77% of such waste water. Some cities however still do not have adequate treatment, including four in the EU-15: Barreiro/Moita and Matosinhos in Portugal, Frejus in France, and Trieste in Italy
For EU-15 Member States the Directive should have been be fully implemented at the time of the report, but EU-12 countries were granted extensions in their Accession Treaties. In 2007/08 Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania and Slovenia still had deadlines pending.
Next Steps
The Commission will now assist Member States with financing projects using Cohesion Funds. Other EU institutions play an important role on financing, including the European Investment Bank (EIB) which has provided funding for a variety of UK projects.
On enforcement, the Commission said it would take proactive steps to work with Member States when possible, but would also continue to take legal action against countries where implementation fell behind, especially in cases of serious implementation gaps and delays. In 2007 the Commission followed up on UWWT court rulings against Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Click here to download the assessment.
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