Illegal landfill could land Slovakian government with €1m fine
Slovakia is facing financial penalties of over €1 million (£770,000) for operating a hazardous landfill after the European Commission announced that it is taking the nation back to the European Court of Justice.
The European Union’s law court ruled in April 2013 that Slovakia was violating EU law by allowing the operation of the Žilina–Považský Chlmec landfill without a site conditioning plan.
Three years later, the Commission says that the nation’s government has still not made a definite decision on the landfill’s status and is asking the Court of Justice to impose fines until the Slovak authorities comply with the law.
The minimum fine that the Commission is requesting is €939,000 (£722,000), with additional fines of €6,793.80 (£5,221) for every day that the landfill issue is not definitively addressed.
Though the decision on the final penalty will be up to the court, the Commission states that these suggested fines ‘take into account the duration of the infringement, its gravity, and the size of the member state’.
Under EU law, only safe and controlled landfill activities should be carried out in Europe, to protect human health and the environment from the negative effects caused by the collection, transport, storage, treatment and disposal of waste.
The Landfill Directive of 1999 required all member states to close non-compliant landfills by 16 July 2009, unless they provided appropriate site conditioning plans that set out planned measures to meet the Directive’s requirements.
Although the Žilina landfill is no longer taking waste, the Commission says that there has been no real progress in the procedure for its closure in line with the Landfill Directive and it has therefore decided to take Slovakia back to the Court of Justice of the EU and to propose fines.
