WRITTEN QUESTION E-2776/01

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(9 October 2001)

Subject: Enforcement of environmental legislation (Greece)

What is the total amount paid by the Greek Government in settlement of the fine imposed by the European Court of Justice for the failure to prevent pollution resulting from inadequate storage of waste on Crete, and is any payment outstanding?

What work has been carried out to prevent the recurrence of the problem, and is the Commission satisfied with what has been done?

When did the Commission first commence enforcement measures in a bid to ensure that the work was undertaken, and is it able to provide an estimate of the cost, in terms of the time spent by its officials, involved in this exercise over many years?

What lessons have been learnt by the Commission from this exercise which may assist its future work in enforcing environmental legislation?

How many cases of a similar nature to this are now being pursued by the Commission, and does any EU Member State NOT have any enforcement action being taken against it?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(3 December 2001)

In its judgement(1) delivered on 4 July 2000 (second judgement under article 228 (ex Article 171) of the EC Treaty) the European Court of Justice declared that by failing to take the measures necessary to ensure that waste is disposed of in the area of Chania without endangering human health and without harming the environment in accordance with Article 4 of Council Directive 75/442/EEC(2) and by failing to draw up for that area plans for the disposal of waste, pursuant to Article 6 of Directive 75/442/EEC, and of toxic and dangerous waste, pursuant to Article 12 of Council Directive 78/319/EEC(3), Greece

has not implemented all the necessary measures to comply with the judgement in Case C-45/91 (first judgement under article 226 (ex Article 169) of the EC Treaty and has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 171 of the EC Treaty.

The Court of Justice ordered to pay to the Commission, into the account Community own resources, a penalty payment. This penalty was set at 20 000 for each day of delay in implementing the measures necessary to comply with the judgement of 7 April 1992 in case C-45/91(4), from delivery of the second judgement until the first judgement has been complied with.

The Commission has sent periodically to the Greek authorities letters requesting the payment of the daily penalty of 20 000 for the months of July 2000 (as from the 4th) to February 2001 included which Greece has paid all the amounts due within the deadlines foreseen. This represents a total amount of 5 400 000 paid to the Commission by Greece.

By successive letters sent in July 2000, October 2000 and March 2001, the Greek authorities have communicated to the Commission information concerning the adoption of the solid and dangerous waste management plans of the district of Chania, the definitive closure of the illegal dump of Kouroupitos, the full functioning of the new provisional installation in Messomouri, the timetable for the construction of a permanent waste landfill site in Korakia together with a composting plant. With the purpose of verifying the technical and factual dimension of this information, the Commission selected two independent experts, who, after inspecting the site area (23-25 June 2001), produced a report (9 July 2001) accompanied with photographic evidence. In the light of the above, the Commission concluded that Greece complied with the requirements of the Court of Justice's judgement.

While a few infringement procedures were launched against Member States under article 228 of the EC Treaty, as listed in the eighteenth annual report on monitoring the application of Community law (2000)(5), this is the first judgement of the Court of Justice delivered on the basis of this Article and imposing a fine on a Member State. Because of the particularity and the unique character of this case, the Commission has handled it in a very careful way, which necessitated the involvement of many officials and a great investment in terms of time. It must be added that the procedure aiming to ensure that Greece has undertaken measures to conform to the Community environmental law on waste commenced in 1989.

The experience attained by this exercise will help the Commission to draw conclusions for the treatment of future similar cases and will assist the Commission in its task to enforce environmental legislation. The Kouroupitos case creates a strong precedent mainly for Greece, where many problems raised by uncontrolled landfill sites exist. Furthermore, the same conclusion is valuable for other Member States where problems of similar nature occur. In fact, Member States comply rapidly with Community obligations when there is the pressure of the article 228 of the EC Treaty fine payment. In other terms, the introduction of this new procedure by the Maastricht Treaty is proved to be successful. It should be noticed that two cases concerning the application of Council Directive 76/160/EEC(6) in the United Kingdom (C-85/2001) and in Spain (C-278/2001) are before the Court of Justice under the Article 228 (of the EC Treaty) procedure.

In fact, there are a large number of cases pursued by the Commission concerning uncontrolled disposal of waste. Out of 1 330 open cases concerning violation of the Community environmental law, 146 cases are related to illegal landfills. More specifically, 42 cases have to do with Spain, 27 with Italy, 21 with Greece, 12 with France, 11 with Ireland, 10 with the United Kingdom, 8 with Germany, 6 with Belgium, 2 with each one of Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal and 1 case with the Netherlands. There are no complaints regarding Finland and Sweden on this issue. The new Council Directive 1999/31/EC(7), which has come into effect on 16 July 2001, specifies the minimum requirements for design, operation, closure and after-care of landfills and will help to improve the management of new landfills in the Community.

(1) Judgement of 4 July 2000, C-387/97, ECR p. 5047. We have to notice that article 171 mentioned in the judgement has become article 228.

(2) Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste, OJ L 194, 25.7.1975.

(3) Council Directive 78/319/EEC of 20 March 1978 on toxic and dangerous waste, OJ L 84, 31.3.1978.

(4) Judgement of 7 April 1992, C-45/91, ECR p. 2509.

(5) COM(2001) 309 final (Volume I).

(6) Council Directive 76/160/EEC of 8 December 1975 concerning the quality of bathing water, OJ L 31, 5.2.1976.

(7) Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste, OJ L 182, 16.7.1999.