European Commission to send Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union for not closing the landfills of non-compliant waste

The Acting Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Tanczos Barna, deems "a harsh, but not at all unexpected lesson" the decision of the European Commission (EC) to send Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union for not closing the landfills of non-compliant waste."It is a harsh lesson that we receive today from the European Commission, but not an unexpected one. Looking back at this procedure, which began in 2012, I can even say that the European authorities have been excessively indulgent and have given us every possible chance to fulfill our obligations, assumed by our country in the Accession Treaty. The citizens of Romania must know that the Government and the Ministry of Environment will not allow these possible financial sanctions to be paid from the State Budget, i.e. from their pockets. Applying the "polluter pays" principle is the only solution, so we will turn against the owners of these waste deposits and hold them accountable. We will do this because, out of the 48 non-compliant landfills that remain unclosed and which are the subject of the case, the owners of these waste deposits managed to close, in 10 years, only six, of which 3 were closed only this year. These are historic municipal and industrial landfills, on which there has not been deposited anything for decades, but which, instead of being closed accordingly and greened, have been simply abandoned by their owners," the minister wrote, according to the institution's Facebook page.The dignitary added that for the remaining 42 non-compliant landfills yet to be closed, Romania is in different phases. Thus, for eight municipal waste deposits, financing from the Environmental Fund was ensured and they are in different closing stages, and for other nine industrial landfills, owned by various economic agents, certain steps were made.The European Commission decided on Friday to refer Romania back to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to fully comply with the Court's decision of 18 October 2018, which found that its obligations under the Waste Deposits Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC) had been fully disregarded, a press release from the Community executive said.According to this decision, Romania had the obligation to close and rehabilitate all waste deposits that did not obtain an operating authorization by 16 July 2009. The Court found that Romania had not complied with this obligation with regard to 68 waste deposits. This is the second referral to the Court and may lead to the application of sanctions corresponding to the time elapsed from the first decision to the assurance of compliance.Three years after the decision was handed down, Romania closed and rehabilitated 24 landfills. Therefore, 44 landfills have not been closed, and for many of them, the necessary works for their rehabilitation have not been foreseen. In order to comply with the Court's decision, Romania must take all necessary measures to ensure that these waste deposits are closed, sealed and rehabilitated as soon as possible because of the risks they present to health and the environment.