Discharge of sewage on Los Lances beach and other beaches in Tarifa/Cádiz in SCI ES0000337

EN E-004973/2017 Answer given by Mr Vella on behalf of the Commission (7.9.2017) The Commission is aware of the situation described by the Honourable Member, and has taken action to remedy the non-compliant application of EU law which is resulting in damage for the environment and putting the health of citizens at risk. Tarifa is one of 37 agglomerations of more than 15 000 p-e which discharge their urban wastewater into receiving waters not considered to be sensitive areas where the Court of Justice of the EU found in 2011 that Spain was not adequately applying Articles 3 and 4 of Directive 91/271/EEC as regards the collection and treatment of urban wastewater. The obligation for those agglomerations to be equipped with systems for the collection and treatment of wastewater entered into force on 1 January 2001. In May 2013, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Spain under Article 260 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to ensure that the above judgment was fully enforced. The assessment of the information submitted by Spain showed that the situation in 17 of the concerned agglomerations, including Tarifa, remained unsolved. Consequently, the Commission decided to refer Spain to the Court for a second time under Article 260 TFEU and ask the Court to impose financial penalties. An action was brought before the Court on 20 April 2017.