Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos yesterday expressed conviction that authorities would close down the majority of the country’s illegal landfills by the end of the year and would elude stinging fines from the European Commission.

“We believe that by the end of 2008 we will have progressed so far that we will no longer be under the scrutiny of the EC and will have safeguarded our environment and society from the risks that exist today,” Pavlopoulos said following a session of the Inner Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Pavlopoulos said that tight cooperation with the ministries of the Economy, Environment and Development would help authorities to meet the EC’s target and close down some 2,500 illegal dumps by the end of December, leaving some 450.

The minister said the government would help local authorities to embrace the new technologies necessary to replace existing illegal dumps with so-called “sanitary” landfills and waste processing plants.

Four such plants are already being planned and many more will be built in the near future, according to government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos who yesterday heralded “a new era” for waste management in Greece.

The government is considering offering incentives to local authorities to recycle the residue left over from the planned waste-processing plants, Pavlopoulos said.

The long-term aim is to eradicate all non-sanitary landfills by 2020, in accordance with EU directives, the minister added.