Brussels, 25/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Italy may make no mistake about it: the Commission will not compromise in the respect of the European directive 2006 on waste management (2006/12/EC).
Janez Potoènik, European Commissioner for the Environment, has ordered that the Commission closely follow the worsening situation in Campania and has noted that this crisis in waste management looks very similar to the one which arose in 2007, which led the Commission to bring infringement proceedings that saw the Italian authorities ruled against by the Court of Justice of the EU.
In a press release published on Saturday 23 October, the Commissioner, who is “very worried”, said: “the Commission is still reviewing information it received early October from the Italian authorities, but today's situation leads us to believe that the measures taken since 2007 by the Italian authorities are insufficient” to lead to an adequate and definitive solution to the waste management problem.
During the 2007 crisis, the Court of Justice ruled that in the absence of an appropriate and integrated network of installations to ensure the disposal of urban waste close to where it is produced, the Italian authorities had not adopted all the measures needed to avoid danger to human health and the environment (ruling of 5 March 2010 in the case C-297/08). (A.N./transl.fl)