HAVET & VANHUFFEL – Association d’avocats
The Court of Justice of the European Union orders by judgment of 6 March 2025 (case C-315/23) the Republic of Croatia to pay the Commission a fine of EUR 1,000,000 and a periodic penalty payment of EUR 6,500 for each day of delay in implementing the necessary measures imposed on it by the Court in a judgment of 2 May 2019 and intended to adequately manage waste dumped in Biljane Donje posing a threat to human health and the environment.
In a judgment of 2 May 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Republic of Croatia, due to its failure to take measures to ensure that the management of landfill waste in the vicinity of the locality of Biljane Donje is carried out and ceases to endanger human health and harm the environment, had failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13 of Directive 2008/98.
The Commission had received a complaint concerning the landfilling of significant quantities of waste harmful to human health less than 50 metres from a small town and had drawn attention in February 2014 to the possibility that the method of waste management was not in compliance with Directive 2008/98.
The Commission had then, on 27 March 2015, sent a letter of formal notice to the Republic of Croatia in which it criticised that Member State for failing to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4, 5 and 13 and Article 15(1) of Directive 2008/98 and invited that Member State to submit its observations within two months.
In its response to the letter of formal notice, the Republic of Croatia had admitted that the type of product dumped in landfill should be considered as waste (a type of slag).
During meetings on 7 and 8 April 2016, the Croatian authorities informed the Commission that the decision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nature of 31 March 2015 requiring the disposal of waste consisting of the slag in question by 31 December 2015 had not been implemented and that the waste was still being dumped at the same location, but that, following the removal of a legal and administrative obstacle, the implementation of that decision would be entrusted to a third party. The Croatian authorities nevertheless indicated that it would take at least one year to complete the tendering procedure, select the most advantageous tender and proceed with the actual implementation of the decision. Those Croatian authorities committed to submit to the Commission, before the end of June 2016, an action plan for waste management and the remediation of the Biljane Donje site.
Without any information on the development of the situation, the Commission brought an action for failure to fulfil obligations before the Court of Justice of the European Union on 11 April 2018.
For the Court, although Article 13 of Directive 2008/98 does not specify the specific content of the measures that must be taken to ensure that waste is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment, the fact remains that that provision binds the Member States as to the objective to be achieved, while leaving them a margin of discretion in assessing the need for such measures and that, although it is not, in principle, possible to infer directly from the fact that a factual situation does not comply with the objectives set out in Article 13 of Directive 2008/98 that the Member State concerned has necessarily failed to fulfil its obligations to take the necessary measures to ensure that the waste in question is disposed of without endangering human health. and without harming the environment, the persistence of such a factual situation, in particular when it causes significant degradation of the environment for a prolonged period without intervention by the competent authorities, taking into account the authority’s waiting periods for a significant period
The slag in question was deposited at the Biljane Donje site between May 2010 and February 2011, such that, between that time and the end of the period set in the reasoned opinion, namely 18 January 2017, almost seven years had elapsed, which is a considerable period of time, with the competent national authorities still failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that that waste was disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment.
The Court therefore held that the Republic of Croatia:
- By failing to establish that the stone aggregates dumped in Biljane Donje (Croatia) are waste and not by-products and should be managed as waste, the Republic of Croatia has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 5(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives;
- By failing to take all necessary measures to ensure that the waste dumped in Biljane Donje is managed without endangering human health and without harming the environment, the Republic of Croatia has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13 of Directive 2008/98.
- By failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that the holder of the waste dumped in Biljane Donje treats the waste himself or has it treated by a dealer, establishment or undertaking carrying out waste treatment operations or by a public or private waste collector, the Republic of Croatia has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 15(1) of Directive 2008/98.
This judgment of 2 May 2019 is available via the link : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62018CJ0250.
In its judgment of 6 March 2025, the Court found that, despite requests from the Commission, the Republic of Croatia had not taken the necessary measures to comply with the judgment of 2 May 2019, following a new action for failure to fulfil obligations lodged by the Commission on 23 May 2023.
The Court in its decision :
1. Declares that, by failing to take all the measures necessary to comply with the judgment of 2 May 2019, the Republic of Croatia has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 260(1) TFEU;
2. Orders the Republic of Croatia to pay the European Commission a lump sum in the amount of EUR 1 000 000;
3. Orders the Republic of Croatia to pay the European Commission, from the date of delivery of the present judgment until compliance with the judgment of 2 May 2019, in the event that the failure to fulfil obligations established in point 1 of the operative part of the present judgment continues until that day, a penalty payment of EUR 6 500 per day of delay in implementing the measures necessary to comply with the judgment of 2 May 2019.
The judgment of 6 March 2025 is available via the following link: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=296200&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=27398189.