eKathimerini — The European Court of Justice has fined Greece 5 million euros with an additional penalty of 3.28 million euros for every six months that it delays payment its failure to comply with waste water treatment regulations in the Thriasio Plain in western Attica.
Judges ruled that Greece continues to be in violation of an earlier ruling from 2004 by not taking the “measures necessary for the installation of a collecting system for urban waste water from the Thriasio Pedio area to the west of Athens, and not subjecting the urban waste water from that area to treatment more stringent than secondary treatment before its discharge into the sensitive area of the Gulf of Elefsina.”
According to the ruling, while a treatment plant had been constructed and put into operation by 2012, the secondary collection network has not been completed and nearly half the population in the area is not connected to the tertiary system.
The court conceded that the situation at Thriasio has improved since the 2004 proceedings and added that the size of the fine took into account “the mitigating factor linked to the important archaeological heritage which this area is home to and the difficulties invoked by Greece in that regard, as well as that Member State’s reduced ability to pay as a result of the economic crisis.”
The European Union’s directive regarding urban waste water treatment came out in 1998.
Poland was also reprimanded by the same court for failing to keep air quality standards within EU limits.
Poland now needs to improve the situation, just as Bulgaria had been ordered to do.
If the European Commission finds that they does not do enough to comply with the court ruling, it could refer them back to the court, which could then hand out a fine.
