In the avalanche of infringement procedures on Wednesday 17 May against member states which fail to comply with EU law, two involve Italy and its poor waste management.
The Commission is referring Italy to the Court of Justice of the EU for its failure to rehabilitate or close down 44 landfills, which represent a serious risk for human health and the environment.
This is a persistent infringement of Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste which required member states either to close or to rehabilitate landfills by 16 July 2009. After receiving an initial and then an additional reasoned opinion calling on it to bring 50 landfills up to the safety standards set out in the directive, by May 2017, Italy had made some progress but not enough to satisfy the Commission which is losing patience. Hence the decision to take Italy to the Court of Justice to speed up the process.
In the second case, Italy has been sent an additional reasoned opinion for its continuing failure to comply with the directive on urban waste water treatment (Directive 91/271/EEC).
Despite several warnings, 758 agglomerations in 18 different regions/autonomous provinces covering more than 18 million people (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont, Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trento, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta and Veneto) do not have adequate collection and treatment systems for urban waste water, as required by Directive 91/271/EEC, in all agglomerations of more than 2,000 inhabitants.
In addition, the Commission states that the requirements to reduce the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen entering treatment plants are not fulfilled in 32 sensitive areas. This poses significant risks to human health and the environment, particularly as it has lasted more than ten years, the Commission says. With this additional reasoned opinion, the Commission calls on Italy to provide, within two months, updated information on progress made in all the agglomerations and sensitive areas, where Italy itself acknowledges its failure to comply. Italy is also asked to submit further clarification on all the cases it declared compliant but where evidence gathered by the Commission indicates the opposite.
The Commission notes that the Court of Justice has already ruled against Italy on two previous occasions for persistent breach of the directive: in 2012 (for non-compliance in 80 agglomerations) and in 2014 (for 24 agglomerations). In December 2016, the Commission decided to refer Italy back to the Court (for the 2012 case) and proposed that financial penalties be imposed. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)