Lithuania is facing sanctions of "several hundred million euros" for its failure to comply with the EU directive on waste water treatment, the country's Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas said on Friday.
"With doing nothing and maintaining that problem, we will definitely face significant fines," he told reporters, adding that 2021 will be key in implementing these directives.
"This year will be critical as to whether Lithuania will pay multimillion fines or deal with the problems that are stuck in the drawers," the minister said.
According to Gentvilas, 38,500 residents were still unconnected to centralised wastewater networks as of July 2020.
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"The National Audit Office's report contains a fact that Lithuania only treats 47 percent of wastewater, and the goal is to treat 95 percent of wastewater in urban territories and residential agglomerations with more than 2,000 residents," he said.
According to Gentvilas, two upcoming dates are critical for the development of the wastewater infrastructure – on March 1, when municipalities will have to prepare infrastructure development plans, and December 31, 2022 when Lithuania will have to meet the European Union requirements by this date.
Back in 2017, the European Commission launched the infringement procedure against Lithuania for failure to implement The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive back in 2017.
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