Press Release: Spanish bathing water: Commission welcomes European Court penalty decision

The European Commission welcomed the European Court of Justice's decision of 25 November 2003 to impose fines on Spain for not meeting EU water quality standards in certain Spanish inland bathing waters, i.e. rivers and lakes. The Court ordered that Spain pay €624,150 per year for every 1% of inshore Spanish bathing waters that continue to fail to meet the quality standards set in the Bathing Water Directive. To date, there has been only one other judgment of the Court in which a Member State was fined (Greece, ECJ Case C-387/97). That also related to EU environmental legislation.

http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp03/aff/cp03105en.htm http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp03/aff/cp03105en.htm

http://www.europa.eu/water/water-bathing/index_en.html http://www.europa.eu/water/water-bathing/index_en.html

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