As part of the avalanche of infringement procedures falling on Thursday 17 November, Croatia and France have been summoned by way of reasoned opinion (second stage of the proceedings) to comply with EU law on waste management. These two member states now have two months to comply, failing which the European Commission may take them to the EU Court of Justice.
France is being requested to adopt waste management plans throughout its territory, as demanded by Directive 2008/98/EC – and not just for certain parts of the country. It is also been called on to revise the plans that it has adopted. This framework directive on waste demands that member states adopt national plans for reducing the impact of waste on the environment and human health. Member states are also obliged to ensure that once waste management plans are adopted they are assessed and if necessary, revised at least every six months.
Croatia is requested to take measures to ensure that an adequate level of protection is ensured at the “Crno brdo” site in Biljane Donje. For over three years this has been used as a site for depositing mineral aggregates from potentially toxic waste metals.
The Croatian authorities have failed to classify these minerals as waste and around 140,000 tonnes of these aggregate minerals are directly deposited into the soil. Under the terms of the framework directive on waste, Croatia should have taken measures to protect underground water sources and prevent the dispersal of damaging particles into the air. An official letter of warning was sent in March 2015 but nothing has been done to rectify this shortcoming and no timetable has been outlined to clean up the site. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)