Brussels, 02/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Italy and Greece were severely punished by the Court of Justice of the EU (rulings C-196/13 and C-378/13) on Tuesday 2 December for their failure to comply on time with two previous rulings (C-135/05 of 26/04/2007 and C-502/03 of 6/10/2005) which found that these two countries had failed to meet their obligations under European waste regulations.
Lump sum fines of €40 million and €10 million respectively have been imposed on Italy and Greece, along with penalty payments for each six-month delay in taking the necessary measures to come into line with the 2007 and 2005 rulings. For Italy, the penalty payment is €42.8 million and for Greece it is €14.520 million.
Italy. In 2013, the Commission found that Italy had not yet adopted all the measures necessary to comply with the 2007 judgment and referred the matter to the Court for a second time. In addition, during the procedure it became apparent that, of the 218 sites which infringed the waste directive (75/442/EEC) in 2013, 198 still did not comply. Among these, 14 of the 16 sites found in 2013 also to be in breach of the hazardous waste directive (1991/689/EEC) still contravened the directive. Furthermore, two of the five landfill sites at issue still did not comply with the requirements of the landfill of waste directive (1999/31/EC). In its ruling, the Court notes that, seven years after the first ruling, there are still a considerable number of illegal sites in almost every Italian region. Italy has failed in its obligations to determine whether a clean-up of old illegal sites was necessary and, if necessary, to clean them up, ensuring that these operations and the safe removal of the waste were carried out by authorised operators.
The penalty payment may be reduced by €400,000 for each hazardous waste site brought into conformity and by €200,000 for each of the other sites brought into conformity.
Greece. The same mechanism has been put in place for Greece, which was found guilty in 2005 of breaching the waste directive and where, in May 2014, there still remained 70 illegal landfill sites out of the total of 293 identified in 2013 (1,125 uncontrolled waste disposal sites still in use at the time of the 205 ruling) and 223 sites closed down but not cleaned up. The penalty payment could be reduced by €40,000 for every landfill site that is closed down or cleaned up and by €80,000 for each landfill site closed down and cleaned up. (FG)