Huge landfill fines on horizon
Unless more than 1,500 illegal landfills across the country are closed down by January 1, municipal authorities will face heavy fines of 34,000 euros per landfill per day, senior officials from three different ministries warned yesterday at a joint press conference. The European Commission has said it will apply this daily fine from January 1, if Greece fails to close down 1,555 of the existing 2,047 illegal landfills, leaving 492 open, Deputy Economy Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou told reporters. If this target is reached, the fine will still stand at 16.7 million euros a day. The fine will be harsher if Greece fails to meet the target. According to Papathanassiou, Greece may be able to appeal the penalty if it attains the EC target. «The EC has said it is willing to show understanding as long as we shut down 1,555 landfills by the end of the year,» Papathanassiou said. As for who will bear the burden of these huge fines, Deputy Interior Minister Thanassis Nakos made it clear that local authorities will pick up the tab. «The fines will be deducted from the next round of EU funding to which the country is entitled and this loss will be distributed among the municipalities according to the number of illegal landfills they are maintaining,» Nakos said. The decision to pass on fines to local authorities has already provoked the ire of many local authority leaders, including Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis. There is no consensus regarding the number of illegal landfills across the country. But according to official Interior Ministry figures, there are 2,047, down from 2,974 in 2004. According to Nakos, head of a task force appointed to clear up illegal dumps, 250 have been shut down in the past three months alone.
