The Court of Justice of the EU ordered Croatia (aff. C-315/23) to pay a lump sum of €1 million and a penalty payment of €6,500 per day of delay on Thursday 6 March for leaving around 140,000 tonnes of stone aggregates on landfill in the village of Biljane Donje despite the risk of releasing harmful substances.
The Court’s decision follows an initial action for failure to fulfil obligations brought by the Commission in 2019. Following the Court’s ruling in 2019, Croatia was supposed to ensure that the waste was treated. In the absence of compliance, the Commission brought a new infringement action in 2023.
The judgment imposing pecuniary penalties, delivered on 6 March 2025, notes that “Croatia made no significant progress [...] to ensure full compliance with the judgment in Commission v Croatia and that [...] it was only after the present action was brought that the Croatian Government took the decision to clean up the Biljane Donje landfill”.
The seriousness and duration of the offence are also taken into account. Croatia is accused of dragging out the breach for six years. The waste is not expected to be completely disposed of until August 2025, “approximately fifteen years after the waste was deposited at the Biljane Donje site”.
Link to the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/fsu (Original version in French by Florent Servia)