EU law requires member states to monitor their waters and identify those at risk of nitrate contamination from agricultural runoff. They must also designate land areas that drain into these waters as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, and set up ways to reduce or prevent pollution.
By 2011, Greece had not designated some Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and had not created the mandated “action programs” for these areas. The European Commission formally notified the Greek Authorities, and began infringement proceedings. In 2015, the EU Court of Justice ruled that Greece had violated EU law.
Since then, Greece has designated 12 new Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, but has not established action programs for them, nor provided any indication of when it will. As the Commission put it, “Four years later, the problem is still not fully resolved.”
Now the Commission has referred the case back to the Court of Justice. It asks the court to impose financial sanctions on Greece, in accordance with EU policy. It asks for a fine of roughly 2,600 Euros a day for each day since the 2015 ruling that Greece has failed to honor it, provided Greece does comply before the court rules again on the case. Should Greece not comply before the next Court of Justice ruling, the Commission wants the fine raised nearly tenfold, to roughly 23,700 thousand Euros a day.
