BRUSSELS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission is sending France a final warning, alerting the country to quickly bring its waste water treatment up to EU standards, the commission said Thursday.

    Otherwise, France will be taken to court to face the problem, the executive body of the European Union (EU) said.

    France is still not complying with a 1991 EU directive on urban waste water treatment, despite having been condemned by the European Court of Justice for this in 2004.

    "Untreated urban waste water is a threat to European citizens and detrimental to the environmental quality of Europe's rivers, lakes and coastal waters," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

    "I urge France to act swiftly otherwise the commission will consider asking the court to impose fines," he warned.

    Towns and cities with a population of more than 10,000 are required to collect and treat their urban waste water under the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

    In a ruling in 2004, the European Court of Justice condemned France for failing to designate 11 areas as sensitive and for inadequate treatment facilities in a number of settlements which discharge their waste water into these areas. The court also found that 121 settlements breached the directive by discharging their waste water into previously designated sensitive areas.

    In 2006 France designated the 11 areas as sensitive. However, 140 settlements -- including the city of Paris -- continue to discharge into these sensitive areas, said the commission.

    With regard to the 121 settlements discharging into the previously designated sensitive areas, France proceeded to rearrange them into 164 settlements, resulting in some settlements no longer meeting the threshold level of 10,000 residents to which the directive applies, it said.

    The commission considers such rearranging of settlements to avoid compliance with the directive unacceptable and calls on France to implement the directive in all settlements covered by the 2004 court ruling.

    In May 2007, France notified the commission of the settlements' status and its agenda for complying with the ruling.

    It appears that some remaining settlements will not be equipped with waste water treatment facilities before 2011, said the commission.

    The commission believes this delay is deplorable and urges France to build waste water treatment facilities in all concerned settlements as soon as possible.