* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
In January 2017 the EIB-CM received an appeal against the construction of a connecting sewage channel, the “C0” sewage collector, in the City of Ljubljana part of the upgrading the wastewater collection and treatment in the municipalities of Ljubljana, Medvode and Vodice in Slovenia. The appeal was addressed at the European Commission and the JASPERS office in Vienna and referred to the EIB-CM who declared the appeal admissible as a complaint. The complainant alleges that construction is planned through a protected area for drinking water supply that violates provisions for the protection of the underground aquifer. The aquifer is close under ground level. The projected sewage channel would cross an area that has remained uninhabited due to strict law enforcement and is, moreover, a grave pollution risk also due to its design (insufficient gradient). The complainant further alleges that the projected sewage channel runs across a geological fault with permanent seismic movements.
EIB-CM Action
The JASPERS services undertook the assignment for the project between October and December 2016 and produced a comprehensive set of documents on the project up to an Action Completion Note on 20 December 2016. At the request of the European Commission, JASPERS prepared a Post-Submission Appraisal addressed to the Commission only. Between January and April 2017 the EIB-CM consulted with the EIB’s JASPERS services and with the European Commission’s DG ENV.
Conclusions
The European Commission (DG ENV) assessed the complaint in respect of possible breaches of EU environmental law and based on the information provided, the available project documentation and the data provided by the Slovenian authorities concluded that there was no breach of EU environmental law.
The EIB-CM assessed the petition from the point of view of JASPERS’ terms of reference and found that JASPERS had performed a comprehensive review of the project documents prepared by the beneficiary and its consultants. JASPERS notably drew the attention of Slovenia’s Management Authority to the requirement of an experienced contractor for the "C0" sewage collector and its technical design. In its Post-Submission Appraisal Report JASPERS looked specifically at the concerns raised by the Ljubljana civil society organisation and found satisfactory answers.
Given the analyses of both the Commission and the EIB-CM, the EIB-CM comes to the overall conclusion that at present the appeal has no grounds as an EIB-CM complaint and decides to close this case.