Slovakia has not complied with its waste water management obligations, and a formal notification has been received from the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) has initiated several infringement proceedings against Slovakia. On its website on Thursday, the EC reported that it had called on Slovakia, Poland and Malta to bring the treatment of waste waters.
In Slovakia, 19 agglomerations do not operate a collection system waste water or does not guarantee that it is discharged waste waters are properly treated in these systems. At the same time, these agglomerations had to comply with the rules by the end of December 2015, the EC said.
Slovakia received a formal notification
Slovakia is also among the countries to which the European Commission has sent a formal notification, the so-called infringement, in connection with the incorrect application of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.
The EC assessed that the Slovak Republic did not have sufficiently suitable wastewater systems in 19 out of 356 agglomerations. The press department of the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic (MoE SR) informed about it in the press release.
They must respond within two months
Slovakia has two months to send its response to the EC’s official notification. The Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic points out that the European Commission was based on data from 2016, therefore some shortcomings could already be eliminated.
“The resort will immediately check the current state of wastewater in the mentioned agglomerations. In these agglomerations, in which there has been no improvement in the meantime, the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic will initiate joint negotiations with water supply matters and local governments. “ said the press department of the Ministry of the Environment.
He also stated that on the basis of the negotiations, a time schedule for drainage would be set and a master plan for wastewater, and the time schedule for investments would be included in the replies sent to the EC.
Once the Commission has to respond to Slovakia’s reply, the notification may proceed to the next step, which is to issue a reasoned opinion.
Member States have also breached other obligations
Infringement proceedings against Slovakia, France, Malta, Lithuania and Portugal also started because they had incompletely or incorrectly transposed the Framework Decision on European Arrest. It is a simplified cross-border judicial procedure for extraditing requested persons to prosecute or serve a custodial sentence.
Infringement proceedings were initiated against Slovakia and 17 other EC countries also because they did not properly implement the EU rules on the proportionality test before the adoption of the new profession regulation. It is a directive that provides a set of rules to prevent unnecessarily burdensome rules that may make it difficult for qualified people to access a range of professions.