Source: European Parliament
The Commission is not aware of the reasons of the national delays in the works to upgrade the Scordia purification plant. Only the competent national authorities are responsible for the disbursement of the national funds and the Commission has not identified any EU funds earmarked by the Italian authorities for the project in question.
On the basis of the last call for payment sent by the Commission to the Italian authorities, concerning the 7th semester after the applicable judgment[1] of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Italy paid a fine of EUR 95 429, specifically for the municipality of Scordia for breaches of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive[2].
In order to avoid further penalties, the competent national authorities must ensure full compliance with the above-mentioned ruling by ensuring the required collection and treatment of wastewater, including, if appropriate, by programming available EU funds to build the necessary infrastructure.
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) supports the construction and upgrade of urban wastewater treatment infrastructure.
Dedicated resources are allocated in the ERDF regional programme for Sicily for an amount of around EUR 72 million. Under shared management the responsibility for the selection of interventions lies with the Managing Authority of the programme.