Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 19 April 2013, the European Union General Court upheld in cases T-99/09 and T-308/09 the European Commission's decisions not to pay Italy ERDF financial aid for waste management and disposal in Campania because Italy has not adopted all the measures needed for disposal of waste in the region. The court rules that “in order to refuse interim payments like this, it is sufficient for the Commission to establish that the matters covered by an infringement procedure are directly linked to matters to which the funding relates”.
In 2007, the Commission sent Italy a letter of formal notice for not having ensured that, in Campania, waste is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment and for not creating an adequate integrated network of waste disposal facilities, thus infringing the directive on waste. The Commission informed the Italian authorities in 2008 of its intention, with effect from the date of the infringement, not to make payments to cover the repayment of expenditure incurred by the Campania Operating Programme (50% co-funding from ERDF totalling €46.364 million) for the differentiated collection and recycling of waste launched in 2000, if Italy did not take measures to meet its concerns and comply with the EU Waste Directive (2006/12/EC). In 2010, the Court of Justice found Italy guilty again of failing to comply (see EUROPE 10092). Italy has appealed twice, urging the General Court to annul the Commission's refusal to pay up, arguing that in order to justify refusal under Regulation 1260/1999 on the structural funds, the subject of the infringement proceeding must be exactly the same as the operations the ERDF aid is for.
In the ruling, the General Court says the Commission had properly based its refusal on the regulation because, for this, it is sufficient to establish that the subject of the infringement procedure is directly connected with the measure which the finance is for, the idea of “measure” having a wider meaning than “operation”. It disagrees with Italy and rules that the court ruling in 2010 covered the entire waste management system in Campania, including the fact that the waste sifting and recycling measures do not work properly. The court therefore rejected Italy's appeal. (FG/transl.fl)