Brussels, 16/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Slovakia is facing heavy fines if it fails to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling of 2013 that found it guilty of running an unlawful landfill site at Zilina-Povazsky Chlmec, announced the European Commission on Thursday 16 June.
In the second case at the European Court of Justice over Slovakia's persistent failure to comply with the EU landfill directive, 1999/31/EC, the Commission is asking the Court to impose the minimum lump sum of €939,000 and a daily fine of €6,793.80.
Under the landfill directive, the member states had to close non-compliant existing landfills by 16 July 2009 unless they provided the appropriate site conditioning plans - with planned measures to meet the requirements of the directive - which would allow them to continue to accept waste for disposal.
In Case C331/11 on 25 April 2013, the Court pointed out that the Zilina-Povazsky Chlmec site was operating without a site conditioning plan and without a final decision about whether it could continue to operate, based on approved improvement measures. Slovakia has still not taken a final decision. Although the Zilina landfill is no longer taking waste, the Commission says there has been no real progress in the procedure for its closure in line with the landfill directive.
If Slovakia continues to breach the directive, the daily fine would apply from the date of the second Court of Justice ruling until the day when the authorities comply with EU law. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)