EU takes Ireland to court over water pollution directive

The EU Commission has referred Ireland to the Court of Justice for failing to correctly transpose the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) into national law.

The Directive establishes a framework for protecting inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater from further deterioration and pollution, as well as protecting and enhancing water dependent ecosystems and water resources.

It obliges Member States to protect and restore all bodies of ground water and surface water (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal water) to achieve “good status” by 2027 at the latest.

Missed deadline

The action comes after 20 years of toing and froing between the Commision and Ireland.

EU member states were required to transpose the Water Framework Directive into national law by 22 December 2003 and Ireland initially adopted legislation, but the Commission found it to be insufficient.

Despite some progress and the adoption of new legislation in June and December 2022, the EU Commission said that the Irish authorities have not yet fully addressed the grievances, over 20 years after the entry into force of the Directive.

It said that Ireland’s transposing law still needs to provide for appropriate controls in the following with regards to water abstraction, impoundment and activities causing hydro-morphological changes such as dams, weirs and other interferences in natural water flow.

Most recently, Ireland adopted a new Water Environment (Abstractions and Associated Impoundments) Act on 20 December 2022, but this has not yet been notified to the Commission.

This Act provides for a new regulatory framework to regulate water abstraction, the details of which will then need to be filled in with implementing regulations. But it remains unclear how long it will take for full compliance to be achieved.

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