REPORTS
Bad application of (the Landfill) directive 1991/31/EC and of the (Waste framework) directive 2008/98/EC: INFR(2021)2166
1. Each Member State of the European Union shall apply EU law and take appropriate action to that end. The European Commission is the body responsible for detecting possible breaches of EU law.
In the event that a Member State does not apply Union law and fails to fulfill any of the obligations laid down in the EU Treaties, the European Commission may initiate formal infringement proceedings under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU (details of infringement proceedings here).
2. The Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC and the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) contain a set of rules intended to prevent and reduce the negative impact caused by the generation and management of waste. In its judgment of 15 October 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that, before landfilling, waste must be treated in the most appropriate way to reduce negative impacts on the environment and human health as far as possible.
Following this ruling, in 2015, the Commission launched a study to investigate the landfilling of untreated non-hazardous municipal solid waste in Member States. For Greece, the study revealed a lack of sufficient treatment facilities in the country, insufficient separate collection in relation to glass, metals, and biodegradable waste, and that the majority of organic waste is landfilled without prior stabilisation.
For this reason, as stated in the “October infringement package: main decisions/12-11-2021”, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Greece, urging them to address the shortcomings identified by the Commission [infringement number: INFR (2021)2166].
Read more about this case in the European Commission press release.
The application of EU law is an obligation of the Member States of the European Union.
If possible breaches of EU law are detected, the European Commission may take a series of actions against that Member State to ensure the correct and full application of EU law by initiating infringement proceedings in accordance with Articles 258 and 260 of the TFEU.
In this case, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice, calling on Greece to improve its waste treatment and to properly implement the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC) and the Framework Directive on waste (Directive 2008/98/EC), as the Commission found shortcomings in the procedure followed by the country.
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