Information note of the European Court of Auditors concerning Special Report No 3/2009 concerning the effectiveness of Structural measures spending on waste water treatment for the 1994-1999 and 2000-2006 programme periods

The waste water and sewage sludge from urban agglomerations can affect the quality of Europe’s lakes, rivers, coastal waters, soils and groundwaters. As a result the EU adopted a series of Directives and has also co-financed the building of urban waste water treatment plants through the Cohesion Fund and the ERDF. This improved significantly the coverage rate of the urban population served by waste water treatment.
The Court’s audit focused on Cohesion Fund and ERDF funded plants for the 1994-1999 and 2000-2006 programme periods, in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland which represented the majority of the spending in this area. The audit conclusions presented in this report were based on an examination of management and control systems at the Commission and on an assessment of the performance of 73 treatment plants. In addition, the disposal of sewage sludge produced as a by-product of waste water treatment and the role of the Commission in the area of waste water were also looked at.
The Court concluded that, in general, Structural Measures contributed to an improvement in waste water treatment in the four Member States audited.