Brussels: Italy faces EU legal action and
massive fines failing waste management improvement around
Naples, scene of escalating clashes this week in its ongoing
garbage crisis, a European commissioner said on Saturday.
"I am worried by what has been happening in Campania in
recent days," said Janez Potocnik, the commissioner for the
environment, referring to the explosive situation in the
Naples region.
"Today`s situation leads us to believe that measures
taken by Italian authorities since 2007 are insufficient," he
said in a statement.
He said the Commission, the EU executive arm, was
considering sending a team to the area to assess whether Italy
remained in breach of European legislation requiring waste
disposal installations that protect human health and the
environment.
Europe`s highest court in March found Italy had broken EU
legislation for its failure to clean-up the Naples region
garbage crisis declared by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi 18
months earlier.
Should the European Commission decide to refer the matter
back to the court -- the Luxembourg-based European Court of
Justice -- for a second time, and should it decide against
Italy, the country would face a fine running into millions of
euros.
The fines are calculated as a percentage of GDP, with
day-by-day penalties added to a lump sum.
PTI
