The European Commission said on Wednesday it has decided to refer Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure to comply with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.

The Directive requires Member States to ensure that urban agglomerations (towns, cities, settlements) properly collect and treat their waste waters, thus eliminating or reducing all their undesirable effects when they are discharged into water bodies.

The European Green Deal sets a Zero Pollution ambition for the EU. EU legislation, such as the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, aims to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment, and it is essential that Member States implement it fully.

Malta should have been fully compliant with the Directive since 31 March 2007, the commission said.

“The main issue in Malta is the performance of the waste water treatment plants. The Maltese agglomerations have a municipal collecting system in place and the waste water is being directed to a treatment plant, however, the waste waters exiting the treatment plants do not meet the quality requirements of the directive. This is particularly the case for the ‘Malta North' agglomeration, since its waters are being discharged in a sensitive area, they should be subject to even more stringent treatment. This situation is mainly due to the discharge of farmyard waste (animal manure) into the municipal waste water system, a long-standing problem in Malta, which hampers the performance of the treatment plants and for which the authorities have not yet found solutions.”

The Commission had sent a letter of formal notice to Malta in December 2016, followed by a reasoned opinion in October 2017. “Despite some progress, the Maltese authorities have not fully addressed the grievances. The Commission considers that efforts by the Maltese authorities have to date been unsatisfactory and insufficient and is therefore referring Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union,” it said.

In a social media post, chief PN spokesperson Peter Agius Malta had joined the EU for better standards. “The European Commission hgas taken Malta to court for dumping tonnes of dirty water in the sea. We spent €60 million on water treatment plants but it is clear that money alone is not enough. We also need competence and political will to use EU funds well.”