EC gives final landfill cutoff
The European Commission has said it will give Greece two months to close down 316 illegal landfills after which it will start imposing a daily fine for each dump that continues to operate. The warning came in a letter sent to Greek authorities yesterday by European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. The commissioner sent the letter after EC inspectors who visited Greece over the summer concluded that 316 illegal landfills are still fully operational, while another 429 are in the process of being razed. The EC had sent another letter to Athens in April of last year ahead of an inspection by environment directorate officials. If Greece fails to demolish the remaining illegal landfills, it will face a fine of 34,000 euros for each illegal landfill. It is unclear whether the debt-ridden government, which was supposed to have closed down all its illegal landfills by December 2008, will be able to negotiate another reprieve.
