Sardinia is also on the list of Italian regions referred by the European Union for "lack of conformity" in the collection of sewage water.

Together with the island in Brussels' sights, Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Lombardy, Liguria, Marche, Puglia, Sicily and Tuscany also ended up.

According to Brussels monitoring, therefore, over half of the Italian regions have so far not respected the urban waste water collection and treatment obligations set out in the EU directives.

In particular, the European Commission has reported irregularities to the Court of Justice of the EU for failure to comply with the rules in 179 municipalities with more than two thousand inhabitants.

Brussels started the infringement process by sending the letter of formal notice to Rome in June 2018, followed by a reasoned opinion in 2019.

Despite "some progress" recognized by the EU government, Italy's efforts to comply with the rules have been, according to Brussels, "so far insufficient". Hence the decision to refer our country to the Court, which could now find itself paying a fine for "unsustainability".

(Unioneonline/lf)