WRITTEN QUESTION E-0835/01

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(22 March 2001)

Subject: Organised environmental crime in European countries

- Criminal organisations which harm the environment (the eco-mafia) have become excessively powerful in many European countries, including Italy. This eco-Mafia makes billions by illegally disposing of highly toxic waste which then becomes an ecological time-bomb, destroying the health not only of the current population but of future generations, who will be irredeemably condemned by polluted water, soil and air.

- Examples of such activities were recently shown on Italian public television channels. Moreover, members of the city council and the decentralised local authority of Milan have recently submitted an alarming complaint concerning the risk of leakage of dioxins contained in drums illegally buried deep underground, close to the water-table, in the area earmarked for the construction of Milan's new purification plant.

- This new plant has been approved by the EU, which has already called for the work to begin.

- Given that construction of the purification plant has become urgent and that the eco-Mafia has enormous capacities to thwart checks of any kind.

Can the Commission state:

1. whether it plans to take action in support of Milan, so that the decontamination can be carried out as carefully as possible, enabling an immediate start to be made on the construction of the purification plant;

2. whether or not it considers it necessary to set up a task-force, in which all the Member States participate, to identify and decontaminate illegal dumps of toxic waste and to take legal action, both in individual countries and at Community level, against the various criminal organisations which harm the environment, making use of Interpol and public health and environmental organisations?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(6 June 2001)

Waste

Under Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste(1), Member States are required to ensure that waste, including toxic waste, is disposed of without posing any threat to either human beings or the environment. Consequently, the Italian authorities must make sure that waste is managed, removed, transported and disposed of in a such a way that no unauthorised or illegal points of disposal exist.

The Italian authorities have not asked the Commission to help in cleaning up the location in question. The Commission does not intend to take any action in this area.

Under Article 8 of Directive 75/442/EEC Member States are required to take the necessary measures to ensure that the holders of waste deliver the waste either to a private or a public collector or to a third party carrying out recovery or disposal operations, unless the holder of the waste carries out the recovery or disposal himself. In cases where the identity of the holder of the waste is not known (such as in the case of illegal landfilling), it is up to the national authorities to take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of Article 8. The uncontrolled dumping of waste over a prolonged period also represents a violation of Article 4 of Directive 75/442/EEC, which prescribes that waste is to be recovered or disposed of without harm to human health or the environment(2).

Treatment of waste water

With regard to the treatment of waste water in the city of Milan and its surrounding area, Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment(3) provides for secondary treatment as a rule and for more advanced treatment in the case of so-called sensitive areas, in particular in respect of waters which are in danger of eutrophication. The deadlines under the Directive for providing adequate treatment are 1998, 2000 and 2005, depending on the size of the discharge and the characteristics of the affected water.

Given the size of Milan and the character of the Northern Adriatic, waste water treatment facilities for Milan should have been operational by the end of 1998. The Commission has carried out a thorough review of the situation and therefore is aware of the fact that a considerable portion of the Milan area discharges waste water, without appropriate treatment, into the catchment of the River Po, and thus into the Northern Adriatic. The Commission has, in its role as guardian of the EC Treaty, taken appropriate legal action in accordance with the EC Treaty.

The sixth Community action programme for the environment: Environment 2000: Our future, Our choice for 2001-2010(4) specifically provides for the taking of vigorous action against environmental crime(5) .

On 13 March 2001, as part of its activities under the first pillar the EC Treaty, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive of Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law(6). Once adopted by the Council and Parliament that proposal should enable Community law protecting the environment to be implemented more efficiently by introducing the minimum body of criminal offences into the environmental law of all of the Member States.

The Commission is (a) working on bringing together all of the most reliable information on the existence and extent of organised environmental crimes and (b) it will encourage the Member States, as part of police and judicial cooperation (Title VI of the EU Treaty) to back up the proposal for a Directive by adequate action, and more particularly to lay down the minimum rate of minimum penalties incurred in all of the Member States and to make it easier to extradite eco criminals from one Member State to another.

(1) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975.

(2) European Court of Justice, Case C-365/97 S. Rocco.

(3) OJ L 135, 30.5.1991.

(4) COM(2001) 31 final.

(5) Cf. p. 15 of the sixth programme.

(6) COM(2001) 139 final.