The Court of Justice of the European Union continues to lower the fines for illegal landfills that it imposed on Greece years ago. As announced by the Ministry of Environment, two more cases of fines were lifted following the rehabilitation of illegal uncontrolled waste disposal sites (WDFs) in Kea and Folegandros.

These further reduce the number of cases of fines. Specifically, from 65 in 2019, they are now down to 20, a 70% reduction over a period of five years. It should be noted that Greece paid the amount of EUR 80,000, on an annual basis, for each of the 65 cases of landfills in the first half of 2019.

It is worth noting that of the 45 cases of fines that have been waived, Greek taxpayers were exempted from paying fines to the EU, totaling €3.6 million per year.

The other 20 cases concern 17 landfills, of which three are operational and have double fines, 12 are not operational and need to be rehabilitated and two have a failure to prove legal disposal.

Environment and Energy Minister, Theo Skylakakis, said: "The elimination of the European fines paid by our country for illegal Waste Disposal Sites is an issue of major importance for the Ministry of Environment and Energy. We are working, methodically, to achieve this goal, in cooperation with the local authorities, aiming at a double benefit: to tackle the phenomenon of uncontrolled waste disposal through the acquisition of appropriate infrastructure and to relieve the Greek taxpayer."

For his part, the responsible Secretary General for Waste Management Coordination, Manolis Grafakos, noted: "One of our key priorities at the Waste Management Coordination General Secretariat is to zero the shameful fines that our country pays for illegal Waste Disposal Sites. A 70% reduction in fines has already been achieved, but we continue to work to address the remaining cases. The Ministry of Environment and Energy is working with local authorities to this end and is funding projects to rehabilitate landfills. Significant work has been done in waste management, the country is acquiring infrastructure and effectively decentralising fines from the EU."