The judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Thursday 21 March in case C-498/17 that Italy had failed to fulfil its obligations under Directive 1999/31 on the landfill of waste in 44 landfills.
In 2012, the Commission gave Rome formal notice to comply with the Landfill Directive, which aims to reduce or prevent the negative effects of landfilling waste on the environment and human health.
According to this text, by 16 July 2009, Member States had to ensure that existing landfills were compatible with the provisions of the Directive or, failing that, close them. However, in 2012, the Commission considered that 102 Italian landfills did not fall within this framework.
Subsequently, the institution granted Italy a new deadline, until 19 October 2015, to reply to the formal notice. It had made it clear that the procedure in this case concerned the obligations to carry out the measures that the State had already adopted for a certain discharge. Following Rome's replies, the Commission brought an infringement action before the CJEU against the Italian State in 2017 concerning 44 landfills.
In their judgment, the judges of the Court welcomed this action and acknowledged that Rome had failed to fulfil its obligations under Directive 1999/31.
The judges note that, by 19 October 2015, Italy had not taken the necessary measures to bring the 44 landfills identified by the Commission into compliance.
31 landfills are still not in compliance with the relevant text, while seven landfills were brought into compliance with the Directive in 2017 and 2018, i.e. after 19 October 2015. Finally, the Court considers that Rome did not allow the Commission to take note of the compliance of six landfills with the Directive, since this compliance was only achieved after 19 October 2015.
Text of the judgment: https://bit.ly/2JufWL0. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)