REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Eighth Report on the Implementation Status and the Programmes for Implementation (as required by Article 17) of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment
Date: 2016-03-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EU investment, application of EU law, environmental monitoring, innovation, urban area, wastewater, water management, water pollution, water protection, water resources

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 4.3.2016  
COM(2016) 105 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Eighth Report on the Implementation Status and the Programmes for Implementation 
(as required by Article 17) of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste 
water treatment 

{SWD(2016) 45 final} 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
  
 
Eighth Report on the Implementation Status and the Programmes for Implementation 
(as required by Article 17) of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste 
water treatment 

1. Policy context......................................................................................................................................3 

2. Overall compliance assessment ..........................................................................................................4 

2.1. Collecting systems and individual or other appropriate systems (Article 3) ...............................5 

2.2. Secondary or biological treatment (Article 4)..............................................................................5 

2.3. More stringent or tertiary treatment and sensitive areas (Article 5) ............................................5 

2.4. Big cities/big dischargers .............................................................................................................8 

2.5. Trends in compliance ...................................................................................................................8 

2.6. Compliance information at regional level....................................................................................9 

2.7. Remaining challenges ..................................................................................................................9 

3. Action to promote compliance..........................................................................................................10 

3.1 Funding programmes ..................................................................................................................10 

3.2 Implementation programmes (Article 17)...................................................................................10 

3.3 Improving data management and dissemination.........................................................................13 

3.4 Legal enforcement ......................................................................................................................14 

4. Creating jobs and growth by investments in infrastructure for water services .................................14 

5. Innovation: key to support resource efficiency and growth..............................................................15 

6. Conclusions.......................................................................................................................................17 

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1. Policy context 

Uncollected  and  untreated  wastewater  generated  by  the  EU's  500  million  inhabitants  is  a 
major source of pollution that affects quality of fresh1 and marine waters2 and presents a risk 
to human health and biodiversity. 

The  Urban  Waste  Water  Treatment  Directive3  establishes  minimum  requirements  for 
collection and treatment of urban wastewater and is one of the key policy instruments under 
the  EU  water  acquis.  Implementation  of  the  UWWTD  since  its  adoption  in  1991  has,  in 
particular,  significantly  reduced4  discharges  of  major  pollutants  such  as  organic  load  and 
nutrients, main drivers for eutrophication in waters. However, implementation is still far from 
complete.  Some  of  the  Member  States  that  joined  the  EU  in  2004  or  later  face  important 
compliance gaps.   

Implementation  is  challenging  due  to  financial  and  planning  aspects  linked  to  the 
construction of waste water infrastructure.  To help meet these challenges, the EU dedicated a 
significant amount of funding under the EU Cohesion Policy funds (17.8 billion EUR in the 
2007-2013  programming  period,  which  is  still  subject  to  changes).  Investments  in 
infrastructure  lead,  directly  and  indirectly,  to  economic  growth  and  employment  and 
therefore  contribute  to  one  of  the  key  priorities  of  the  current  Commission  to  boost  jobs, 
growth and investment5.  

This  report  combines  for  the  first  time  data  reported  by  Member  States  on  collection  and 
treatment of urban waste water6 and on implementation programmes7. This gives a clear view 
on the compliance gaps and the intended action by Member States to fill those gaps, as well 
as the estimated investment needs and timelines to meet them. 

Continued  efforts  to  improve  and  maintain  compliance  with  the  UWWTD  are  essential,  as 
also recognised by the 7th Environmental Action Programme8, which states that, in order to 
protect,  conserve  and  enhance  the  EU's  natural  capital  by  2020,  the  impact  of  pressures  on 
transitional,  coastal  and  fresh  water  must  be  significantly  reduced  in  line  with  the  WFD's 
requirements. 

High quality sanitation services are also an important concern for EU Citizens, as reflected in 
the European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) ‘Right2Water’. The Commission recognised this9 and 
has  committed  to  take  steps  to  meet  the  concerns  raised.  These  include  reinforcing 
implementation,  actions  to  improve  transparency  in  water  data  management  and  a  more 
structured dialogue between the stakeholders10.  

1  Directive  2000/60/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  October  2000  establishing  a 
framework for Community action in the field of water policy, hereafter 'WFD' 
2  Directive  2008/56/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  17  June  2008  establishing  a 
framework  for  community  action  in  the  field  of  marine  environmental  policy  (Marine  Strategy  Framework 
Directive)  
3 Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment, hereafter ‘UWWTD’ 
4 http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/synthesis/report/3-naturalcapital  
5 Political guidelines for the next Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm 
6 Article 15 of the UWWTD 
7 Article 17 of the UWWTD 
8 Decision N° 1386/2013/EU; paragraph 28 
9 COM(2014)177 final 
10 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/followup_actions/citizens_initiative_en.htm  

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2. Overall compliance assessment 

The compliance assessment is performed on the basis of the Methodology for data evaluation, 
available in EEA's Reportnet11. 

All  the  28  EU  Member  States  have  submitted  datasets  under  this  reporting  exercise.  These 
are mainly data for the year 2012  and in  exceptional and justified cases for  2011 (CY, HU 
and LT). 

Only  25  Member  States'  data  were  assessed.  The  data  reported  by  IT  and  PL  were  of 
insufficient quality. For HR, no compliance obligation was applicable by 2012. 

The 8th Implementation Report covers more than 19,000 towns and cities ("agglomerations") 
above  2,000  inhabitants,  generating  a  pollution  corresponding  to  495  million  so  called 
population-equivalents (p.e.)12. Compared to the previous report a decrease of approximately 
100 million p.e. has been noticed, mainly due to the recalculation of the agglomerations’ size 
on basis of new data from census, tourists and industry in CZ, ES, HU and RO, and the non-
inclusion of population data from IT and PL. 

Almost 15,000 towns and cities (86% of the EU pollution load) are in the 15 Member States 
constituting the EU until 2004. The remaining are in the 13 Member States that joined the EU 
in 2004, 2007 and 201313. Many agglomerations in several of the latter Member States (BG, 
CY, LV, HU, RO SI and SK) have to comply with deadlines later than 2011/2012 and have 
therefore not been assessed in this report. 

Compliance rates at EU-15 level have been found to be, in general, very high. At individual 
Member State level, rates of 95-100% are quite frequent. Results are much lower in EU-13, 
especially in sensitive areas. However, significant progress has been observed since the time 
of the last report (SWD (2013) 298 final). 

Results  for  the  EU-28  overall,  however,  are  still  very  high  because  of  relatively  low 
contribution of annual polluting load by the EU-13 (14%). 

Introducing a new approach: distance to compliance 

In order to have a broader view of the situation in Member States on the target to collect and 
treat  their  waste  waters,  this  report  includes  for  the  first  time  an  assessment  of  the  gaps  in 
actual correctly collected, connected and treated waste water. This approach is additional to 
the official compliance assessment which is used to asses compliance with legal obligations 
arising from the UWWTD. The methodology and results are presented in annex14 and can be 
summarized as follows15:  

11 See http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/613. 

12  "Population  equivalents"  or  p.e.,  term  used  in  the  UWWTD,  covers  the  organic  pollution  generated  by  the 
inhabitants of a village/town, and other sources such as non-resident population and agro-food industries. 
13 The terms EU-13, EU-15 and EU-28, with a clear meaning at EU level, will be used in the 8th Report even if, 
in reference to implementation figures, they are linked to 11, 14 and 25 Member States respectively as HR, IT 
and PL data have not been processed. 
14 See Annex 

4 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                            
 
Although there is still much work ahead to ensure full compliance with the UWWTD, much 
progress  has  been  made  and  a  vast  part  of  Europe's  urban  waste  water  actually  undergoes 
appropriate treatment before it is released back into the environment. 

To reach full compliance, action is needed to overcome the existing gaps: 

• 11 million p.e. (2%) have to be connected and treated, or addressed through IAS; 
•  48  million  p.e.  (9%)    of  the  urban  waste  water  already  connected  have  to  meet  the 

performance of a secondary treatment; and 

•  39  million  p.e.  (12%)  of  the  urban  waste  water  already  connected  have  to  meet  the 

performance of a more stringent treatment.  

2.1. Collecting systems and individual or other appropriate systems (Article 3) 

Most Member States collect a considerable part of their waste waters, with an average rate of 
compliance  of  98  %  (up  from  94%  in  the  previous  report).  20  Member  States  reach 
compliance rates of 100%. All Member States have either maintained or improved previous 
results, except BG. Only two Member States still showed compliance rates below 60% (BG 
and  SI).  There  are  still  countries  where  there  is  only  partial  collection  of  sewage,  applying 
individual or other appropriate systems (IAS)16 in a relatively high rate (above 20%).  This is 
the case of EL, HU, LV, LT, and SK.  

2.2. Secondary or biological treatment (Article 4) 

92%  of  the  waste  waters  in  the  EU  received  secondary  treatment  in  compliance  with  the 
provisions of the UWWTD, 10 percentage points up from the previous Report. 16 Member 
States reached 90-100% compliance, another 5 had levels of compliance in the range of 50-
90%  (CY,  CZ,  ES  FR  and  PT,  and  3  (BG,  MT,  SI)  reached  lower  levels.  Even  though  the 
compliance  rates  in  EU-13  Member  States  are  still  trailing  behind,  with  an  overall  rate  of 
68%,  there  has  been  a  substantial  improvement  in  comparison  to  the  previous  Report,  in 
which only 39% of the waste waters received appropriate secondary treatment.  

2.3. More stringent or tertiary treatment and sensitive areas (Article 5) 

Nearly 75% of the territory in the EU is now designated as sensitive area. 15 Member States 
have designated their entire territory as such, whereas 13 Member States have identified only 
certain water bodies as "sensitive".  HU  and SI have committed to apply  in the  future  more 
stringent treatment in the part of their territory that is located in the Danube catchment and 
was not considered by such treatment obligations under their respective Accession Treaties. 
Details of sensitive areas in are available in the EEA data viewer17. 

With an overall compliance rate of 88%, there has been a substantial improvement since the 
previous Report, of 11 percentage points. However, due to delays in implementation of more 
stringent  treatment  in  EU-13  Member  States,  those  Member  States  show  an  average 
compliance  rate  of  32%.  Overall,  9  Member  States  reached  levels  below  50%,  another  4 

15  PL  and  HR  not  included  and  IT  partially  included  in  the  calculation.  Percentages  relate  to  the  p.e.  load 
generated and subject respectively the expired and pending deadlines. 
16  Individual  systems  or  other  appropriate  systems  that  achieve  the  same  level  of  environmental  protection  as 
collecting systems 
17 http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/uwwtd/interactive-maps/urban-waste-water-treatment-maps 

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Member States had levels in the range of 50-90% and, on the positive side, 12 countries show 
compliance  rates  of  90-100%.  Difficulties  in  reaching  full  compliance  include  the  high 
investment  needs,  mobilisation  of  the  necessary  funding,  long  and  complex  procedures  for 
creating new infrastructure and for improving existing one. 

Figure 1: Compliance results at EU-28, EU-15 and EU-13 level regarding Articles 3 (collection), 4 (secondary treatment) 
and 5 (more stringent treatment). Average values are reflected, weighted by pollution load generated by individual Member 
States. 

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Figure 2: Compliance results per Member State for Articles 3 of the UWWTD (collection), 4 (secondary treatment), and 5 (more stringent treatment). Member States are classified showing first 
those with lowest compliance levels for Article 5, and then in increasing order of compliance. In LV, compliance results for Article 5 were equal to 0% because, LV reported that none of the 
treatment plants applied more stringent treatment, even if N and P-performance is compliant with the requirements of the UWWTD. Lower compliance rates under Article 4 as compared to 
under Article 5 are possible, since Article 5 only refers to sensitive areas.  Compliance rates in RO have been calculated on the basis of the percentage of total load found in compliance for 
Articles  3,  4  and  5  respectively,  according  to  the  requirements  in  the  Accession  Treaty,  rather  than  on  the  basis  of  the  percentage  of  load  associated  with  agglomerations  that  are  in  full 
compliance (data on the list of agglomerations associated with the compliance rates required in the Accession Treaty were not available).  

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2.4. Big cities/big dischargers 

There are 463 big cities (> 150,000 inhabitants) covered by this Report. This is over 100 less 
than in the previous Report, mainly due to the non-inclusion of Italian and Polish data. The 
pollution  load  that  is  produced  by  big  cities  represents  46%  of  the  total  generated  load. 
Approximately 89% of this load undergoes treatment that is more stringent than what would 
be required by the UWWTD. The percentage of load non-collected or collected and untreated 
has  decreased  from  5%  to  2.2%  since  the  previous  Report.  However,  the  degree  of 
compliance varies significantly amongst big cities. For instance, only 14 of the 28 capitals18 
of the EU Member States can be considered to be in full compliance in 2011/2012, which are 
nevertheless 3 capitals more than at the time of the previous report. 

2.5. Trends in compliance 

Compliance  results  throughout  the  years  show  a  positive  trend,  with  the  exception  of  the 
decrease  from  years  2005/06  to  2007/08  due  to  the  fact  that  some  countries  with  poorer 
results did not report data in 2005/06. Long-term trends should be looked at with prudence, 
since  data  reported  have  not  always  covered  the  same  Member  States/agglomerations  for 
several  reasons,  such  as:  sub-optimal  IT  systems  in  the  first  exercises,  gradual  expiry  of 
transitional deadlines at EU-13 level or deficient reporting by some Member States. 

The current report includes new data on CY, EE, LV, HU, SI, SK and RO, as new deadlines 
have expired entailing new compliance obligations. On the other hand, data for IT, PL, HR 
could not be considered in the calculation of the EU results. 

Figure 3: Evolution in compliance rates since reference year 1998 (based on incomplete - data sets available). 

18 Not including Zagreb (still without compliance obligations) and Warsaw (not possible to be assessed). 

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2.6. Compliance information at regional level  

In  this  report,  for  the  first  time,  the  Commission  has  processed  and  included  results  at 
regional  level.  This  allows  providing  for  a  more  accurate  and  nuanced  overview  on 
implementation within Member States, where overall figures are not always useful.  

Member States with high compliance rates at national level usually show such trend all over 
their  regions.  However,  lower  compliance  rates  at  national  level  are  often  due  to  poor 
performance of some of their regions (e.g. in BG, SI, PT, ES, IE).  

Regions have been classified as "rural", "urban" or "balanced" in function of the distribution 
of  their  population  respectively  in  predominantly  "small"  agglomerations,  predominantly 
"large" agglomerations or in a balanced number of both.  

The  share  of  regions  with  high  compliance  rates  (90-100%  )  for  Articles  3,  4  and  5  (if 
applicable) shows that the so-called  "urban" regions achieve better results, closely followed 
by the "balanced" regions,  the "rural" regions showing lower rates. This may be explained by 
the later compliance deadlines for smaller agglomerations. 

Figure 4: Percentage of regions (urban, rural or balanced), in which compliance rates between 90 and 100 % are reached 
for Articles 3, 4 and 5. 

2.7. Remaining challenges  

Despite  the  improvement  in  compliance  with  the  UWWTD,  there  are  still  some  challenges 
ahead: 

- Timely provision of good quality and complete datasets by all Member States, enabling a 
higher  reliability  of  the  compliance  results.  The  development  of  the  structured  information 

9 

 
 
 
and  implementation  frameworks  (hereinafter  SIIFs)  could  be  a  way  to  facilitate  a  more 
effective and streamlined way to provide the information requested under the UWWTD. 

-  Some  EU-13  Member  States  are  still  lagging  behind  to  meet  their  current  compliance 
obligations,  especially  on  waste  water  treatment,  and  in  particular  on  the  more  stringent 
treatment.  EU-13  Member  States  with  pending  deadlines  must  ensure  that  the  right  steps 
towards compliance are taken before the expiry date of the transitional periods. An adequate 
planning on infrastructure priorities and securing the investments needed is essential.  

- The low compliance rates in certain EU-15 Member States and regions, where deadlines for 
compliance expired years ago, make their improvement also a priority. 

-  Compliance  in  big  cities  has  improved,  but  a  relevant  number  of  them  discharging  into 
sensitive  areas  still  does  not  apply  more  stringent  treatment.  This  is  of  particular  concern 
because of the stress they put on the aquatic environment.  

3. Action to promote compliance 

To  help  Member  States to achieve  the objectives of the UWWTD, a number of actions  are 
taking  place,  such  as  bilateral  dialogues,  developing  implementation  programmes,  securing 
infrastructure  investments  through  the  European  Structural  and  Investment  Funds  and 
improving  management  and  dissemination  of  implementation  data.  Where  non-compliance 
persists, the Commission initiates formal action for the violation of EU law. 

3.1 Funding programmes 

Construction  of  waste  water  collection  and  treatment  infrastructure  requires  important 
investments,  for  which  the  EU  offers  funding  opportunities  under  the  European  and 
Structural  and  Investments  Funds.  Over  the  past  programming  periods  these  funds  have 
played  a  crucial  role  in  enabling  Member  States  to  carry  out  investments  to  meet  the 
provisions of the UWWTD. In the programming period 2007-2013, about 17.8 billion € from 
Cohesion Policy funds have so far been allocated to such infrastructure in 22 Member States. 
Negotiations on the operational programmes for the period 2014-2020 are currently in their 
final stage. For this period certain ex-ante conditions need to be fulfilled, which include, for 
investments  in  water  services,  a  water  pricing  policy.  This  mechanism  provides  adequate 
incentives  to  use  water  resources  efficiently  and  an  adequate  contribution  by  the  different 
water  uses  to  the  recovery  of  the  costs  of  water  services  at  a  rate  that  is  determined  in  the 
river basin management plans elaborated under the WFD. It also ensures that investments are 
made within a strategic framework and that funding contributes to the implementation of the 
EU environmental acquis. 

3.2 Implementation programmes (Article 17) 

Member  States  have  reported  in  2014  information  on  their  implementation  programmes, 
under Article 17 of the UWWTD19. The follow up of this article has been ‘reactivated’ by the 
‘Water Blueprint’20 as an action to improve compliance rates. Combining the information on 
compliance  with  information  on  planned  and  ongoing  implementation  programmes  allows 

19 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1405007191767&uri=CELEX:32014D0431 
20 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52012DC0673 

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assessing  whether  the  intended  measures  will  be  sufficient  to  reach  compliance  within  a 
reasonable timeline and with the right priorities. The implementation programmes contain as 
well valuable information on financial planning and resources needed. 

Member  States21  reported  on  8600  projects22  related  to  infrastructure  for  waste  water 
collection and treatment, as well as for individual or other appropriate systems, to be carried 
out between 2014 and 2027; the majority of reported projects will be finalized by 2018. Most 
projects (70%) aim to reduce or annul the level of non-compliance with already applicable 
requirements, while a smaller part (30%) will help ensuring compliance by the time pending 
deadlines will expire. 37% of the projects concern investments in collecting systems and 63% 
relate to treatment plants. 

Most of the projects are planned in EU-13. The rest concern Member States where distance to 
meet  the  objectives  is  longer  (e.g.  IT  and  ES),  Member  States  with  pending  deadlines 
concerning  recently  designated  sensitive  areas  (e.g.  FR)  or  with  infrastructure  that  was 
compliant but has to be renewed. Planned infrastructure for treatment covers 7 % (43 million 
p.e.) of the overall generated pollution load in the EU.  

Figure 5: Number of works planned for urban waste water collecting systems and treatment plants. 

The  total  forecasted  investment  needed  for  construction  of  new  projects  necessary  to  reach 
full compliance with the UWWTD is estimated at € 22 billion 23, evenly distributed between 
collection and treatment infrastructure. Planned EU related co-funding represents 25 % of the 
total investment needs.  

21 EL, HU and RO reported under the old Article 17 template and were therefore not obliged to give detailed 
information about the projects 
22 Tables 2 and 3 of decision 2014/431/EU: Commission Implementing Decision of 26 June 2014 concerning 
formats  for  reporting  on  the  national  programmes  for  the  implementation  of  Council  Directive  91/271/EEC 
(notified under document C(2014) 4208)  
23 EL, HU and RO are note taken into account in this calculation 

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The investment plans24 go beyond that and also include estimates needed for extension and 
renewal  of  existing  systems.  These  show  that  yearly  investment  rates  will  continue  to 
increase  by  14%  compared  to  the  current  situation25,  reaching  an  average  of  almost  €  25 
billion  a year: between 2015 and 2018, about € 100  billion  will be invested in waste water 
infrastructure.  

Figure 6: Current versus expected investments in urban waste water collecting systems and treatment plants. 

Investment amounts represent 50 € per  inhabitant for the coming years. 

Figure 7: Investment per capita in urban waste water collecting systems and treatment plants 

24 Table 4 of the Article 17 Implementing Decision 
25 Each Member State has reported information corresponding to different periods of time. A yearly average per 
year  was  calculated  to  compare  each  Member  State  situation.  "Current  situation"  can  be  considered  as  the 
average yearly investment between 2009 and 2013 and "expected situation" as the average yearly investments 
between 2014 and 2018. 

12 

 
 
 
 
                                                            
Trends  vary,  however,  among  the  Member  States:  whereas  in  some  countries  investments 
will increase or remain stable, in others they will decrease, as shown in the figure below. 

Figure 8: Current versus expected yearly investments in urban waste water collecting systems and treatment plants 

3.3 Improving data management and dissemination  

Since  2012  the  European  Commission  runs  a  pilot  programme  under  the  UWWTD  to  help 
Member States to improve reporting processes and data dissemination towards the public by 
the  development  of  the  Structured  Implementation  and  Information  Framework  (SIIF).  The 
concept was firstly introduced in the Communication26 on improving the delivery of benefits 
from  EU  environment  measures.  Improved  data  management  will  contribute  to  better 
implementation of the UWWTD and to reduction of administrative burden, also by allowing 
an  efficient  fulfilment  of  requirements  under  the  INSPIRE  Directive  2007/2/EC27  and 
Directive  2003/4/EC28  on  public  access  to  environmental  information.  So  far  four  Member 
States (CY, LT, SI and IE) have been involved in the development of national SIIF, including 
improved  IT  systems  and  websites29  on  waste  water  data30.  In  the  next  phase,  three  more 
Member States will join (HR, PL and RO). The Commission is also closely working with the 
EEA to improve the organisation and dissemination of information at EU level31. The result 
of the pilot SIIF programme will be used to develop operational SIIF for other Member States 
and EU interested partners. 

26 Communication(2012)95 final 
27 http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/ 
28 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32003L0004 
29 Based on software ‘freely’ available 
30  IE:  http://uwwtd.oieau.fr/  CY:  http://uwwtd.oieau.fr/cyprus/  -    LT:  http://uwwtd.oieau.fr/lithuania/  -  SI: 
http://uwwtd.oieau.fr/Slovenian/ 
31 http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/uwwtd/interactive-maps/urban-waste-water-treatment-maps 

13 

 
 
 
 
                                                            
3.4 Legal enforcement 

The  Commission  has  been  ensuring  Member  States'  compliance  with  the  UWWTD  mainly 
through  continued  dialogue  and  compliance  promotion  action  but  also,  when  necessary,  by 
entering into bilateral dialogue and launching infringement procedures against non-compliant 
Member  States.  This  has  usually  been  done  by  "horizontal"  cases,  covering  several 
agglomerations  falling  under  the  same  compliance  obligations32,  for  the  "older"  Member 
States  since  the  expiry  of  the  relevant  deadlines  in  the  UWWTD,  and  for  the  "newer" 
Member States gradually as the deadlines for compliance expire.  

Regarding the first group, the Court of Justice of the EU has issued seven judgments since the 
beginning of 2013, three of which were based on Article 260 of the Treaty on the Functioning 
of the EU, meaning that the Court imposed a lump sum and penalty to three Member States 
(BE33, LU34 and EL35) for failure to comply with previous judgments from 2004, 2006 and 
2007.  These  are  the  first  cases  in  which  the  Court  has  imposed  fines  for  failure  to  comply 
with the UWWTD. Five cases are currently pending before the Court. 

The Commission has also launched since 2012 a number of horizontal cases, covering up to 
several hundreds of agglomerations in one single Member States. 

Finally, for "newer" Member States, interim, specific deadlines have been established in their 
respective  Accession  Treaties,  and  have  already  started  expiring.  The  Commission  checks 
Member  States'  compliance  with  these  interim  deadlines  mainly  via  the  regular  reporting 
exercises.  

Based on the 7th report (2009-2010), the Commission has started bilateral dialogues with 10 
Member States.. The suspected breaches vary between Member States, as not all the interim 
deadlines are the same.  

4. Creating jobs and growth by investments in infrastructure for water services 

The  construction  of  infrastructure  to  provide  quality  waste  water  services  requires  a  high 
amount  of  investments  and  operations,  which  contribute  to  an  important  extent  to  jobs  and 
growth in the water industry sector. 

If only the industrial sector36 is considered, it represents an added value of about 15 billion € 
per year. 

32 A list of most relevant infringement cases to date and judgments since end 2012 is provided in the Annex.  
33 C-533/11: the Court ordered BE to pay a 10 million € lump sum as well as 859 404 € for each 6-month period 
until full compliance with the judgment.  
34  C-576/11:  the  Court  ordered  LU  to  pay  2  million  €  lump  sum  as  well  as  2800  €  for  each  day  until  full 
compliance with the judgment.  
35 C-167/14: the Court ordered EL to pay 10 million EUR lump sum as well as 3 640 000 EUR per semester 

until full compliance with the judgment. 

36 Eurostat (NACE Rev. 2, B-E) http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database 

14 

 
 
 
                                                            
Figure 9: Evolution of added value of EU28 sewage industry from 2008 to 2012 

Looking at the larger picture, it is to be noted that the waste water management in the goods 
and services sector37 represents more than 600,000 jobs, an annual production value of more 
than 100 billion € and an annual added value of  about 42 billion € (investments, maintenance, 
operation, export of technology and knowledge). 

Figure 10: Evolution of full-time equivalent employment and of production value in waste water management in EU28 from 
2003 to 2012 

As presented above, the waste water sector will continue to increase.  

Implementation of the UWWTD therefore contributes not only to achieve the environmental 
objectives, but also importantly contributes to boost jobs, growth and investment38. Under the 
Commission’s Investment Plan39, several selected projects for support relate to investments in 
waste and drinking water infrastructure.  

5. 

Innovation: key to support resource efficiency and growth 

To ensure high quality water services for citizens in the most cost effective way it is essential 
to  invest  in  the  development  and  large  scale  implementation  of  innovative  solutions  to 

37Eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environment/environmental-goods-and-services-sector/database 
38 Political guidelines for the next Commission : http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm 
39 COM/2014/0903 final: http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/jobs-growth-investment/plan/index_en.htm 

15 

 
 
 
  
          
 
                                                            
increase  resource  efficiency,  such  as  solutions  for  energy  recovery,  nutrient  recovery  and 
processing to marketable products and water re-use. Innovation is also an important driver to 
increase competiveness, job creation and economic growth. 

The European Innovation Partnership for Water40 (EIP) aims to facilitate the development of 
innovative  solutions  and  to  create  market  opportunities,  both  inside  and  outside  EU.  8 
Priority areas have been identified, namely water reuse and recycling, water and wastewater 
treatment  including  recovery  of  resources,  water-energy  nexus,  flood  and  drought  risk 
management,  ecosystem  services,  water  governance,  decision  support  systems  and 
monitoring, smart technologies and financing for innovation. At the core of EIP Water are its 
voluntary  29  multi-stakeholder  Action  Groups.  Their  partners  develop,  test,  scale  up, 
disseminate  and  stimulate  the  uptake  of  innovations  by  the  market  and  society  for  major 
water-related challenges. Several projects have already been launched. These are the central 
element  of  EIP  Water's  implementation  phase.  Innovative  solutions  are  also  essential  for 
reducing the adverse impact on the environment in areas with high population density and for 
turning them into "smart cities". 

The  importance  of  research  and  innovation  for  water  has  been  also  recognised  in  Horizon 
2020, the 2014-2020 EU funding programme for research and innovation. In the context of 
Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015, water has been identified as a focus area with a 
view of bringing innovative water solutions to the market, and supporting the implementation 
of  the  EIP  and  Joint  Programming  Initiative  on  water  by  Member  States.  Focus  was  given 
inter alia to demonstration and market replication projects to bridge the gap from innovative 
water  solutions  to  market  replication.  Further,  within  the  Horizon  2020  Work  Programme 
2016-2017, water issues are addressed across the entire Horizon 2020 structure with a view 
of continuing the efforts undertaken in the 2014-2015. Actions to boost water innovation for 
Europe  and  beyond  are  particularly  addressed  in  the  areas  of  the  circular  economy, 
sustainable cities, climate services, territorial resilience etc. In particular, Societal Challenge 
"Climate  action,  environment,  resource  efficiency  and  raw  material"  of  Horizon  2020 
promotes the concept of systemic approach through, large scale demonstration/pilot projects, 
with a sufficient level of novelty and progress with respect to the state of the art and aiming 
to  implement  and  test  new  technological  and  non-technological  solutions.  These  projects 
should  also  act  as  a  way  to  attract  most  interest  from  innovators  and  innovation  users  (e.g. 
industries,  financial  actors,  academia,  research,  private  or  public  entities,  regions,  cities, 
citizens  and  their  organisations,  etc..),  thus  helping  to  unlock  additional  public/private 
investments  in  the  water  sector  and  strengthen  synergies  with  other  relevant  EU  funding 
mechanisms  such  as  the  European  Structural  and  Investment  Funds  (ESIF),  in  particular 
under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

Quite  relevant  for  the  waste  water  sector  are  innovative  solutions  for  water  re-use  and  its 
potential contribution to an important extent to resource efficiency. In follow-up of the Water 
Blueprint41 the Commission looks currently at the possible creation of an EU-level instrument 
to encourage water re-use, which is a requirement under Article 12 of the UWWTD.  

40 http://www.eip-water.eu/about 
41 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/blueprint/follow_up_en.htm  

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6. Conclusions 

•  The  implementation  of  the  UWWTD  has  significantly  reduced  organic  and  nutrient 
pollution  load  discharges  in  the  EU  and  therefore  plays  a  key  role  to  achieve  good 
environmental status of marine and fresh waters.  

•  Despite challenges such as substantial investment needs and long-term planning, high 
compliance  rates  are  reached  in  EU-15.  In  EU-13,  still  significant  compliance  gaps 
exist, especially on treatment. Reinforced action and investments are needed to reach 
full compliance within reasonable time delays.  

• 

Implementation programmes show that Member States plan significant investments to 
close the compliance gaps by constructing waste water infrastructure. Member States 
need  to  continue  to  collect  the  necessary  information  to  timely  identify  future 
investment needs and operation costs, and to improve or maintain the performance of 
their current systems.  

•  Additional  efforts  are  needed  to  improve  the  quality  and  the  timeliness  of  the  data 
reported on the implementation of the UWWTD. To this end, processes and tools are 
being  revised  and  developed  by  the  Commission  in  collaboration  with  EEA  and 
Member States.  

•  The  water  industry  sector  is  an  important  contributor  to  economic  growth  and  job 
creation.  Investments  to  reach  full  compliance  with  EU  legislation  have  significant 
potential to create new jobs and growth. 

• 

Investments in innovative technologies are essential to make the water industry more 
resource efficient and also contribute to job creation and economic growth. 

17