Brussels, 19/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - Environment experts from the European Commission will be in Campania on Monday 22 November for a two-day mission in the southern Italian region where the second Italian waste crisis is raging (EUROPE 10250 and 10243). This was announced to the press in Brussels on Friday 19 November by Joe Hennon, who is spokesman for Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik.
Officially, experts from the Directorate General for the Environment will be assigned to assist Italian authorities, the spokesman said. The truth of the matter is that they will be making an on-the-spot assessment of the magnitude of the crisis and discuss matters with the local authorities. The objective is to identify whether further action should be taken before the Court of Justice against the Italian authorities, which were already condemned in 2004 for failing to comply with the 2006 European directive on waste management (2006/12/EC). This eventuality is not to be ruled out as, to date, the Commission has received only “elements of a management plan” from the Italian authorities, dating back to early October.
On the sidelines of the global summit on biodiversity in Nagoya (Japan), the Italian authorities had told the Italian press that they were doing their best to manage the crisis and that the Commission was expected to assist them in the task. For diplomatic reasons, the expert mission about to leave for Italy was presented as a response to the Italian request for assistance. Rome, however, knows that, since 23 October, its management plan has been the subject of close surveillance on the part of the Commission.
During the similar crisis in 2007, the Court of Justice had ruled that, if no adequate and integrated waste management network were set in place near the place of waste production, then the Italian authorities had not adopted all the measures necessary to avoid endangering human health and the environment (C-297/08 ruling of 5 March 2010). (A.N./transl.jl)