Commission refers Croatia to CJEU over its failure to protect citizens from industrial waste in Biljane Donje landfill

Further information:

The location is used as a depository of a large amount of production residue of processing of ferromanganese and silicomanganese. As the Croatian authorities failed to classify that material as waste in line with Directive 2008/98/EC, approximately 140,000 tons of this potentially harmful stone aggregate are deposited directly on soil.

Background information:

The Waste Framework Directive aims to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use. Under these rules, Member States must recover and dispose of waste in a manner that does not endanger human health and the environment, prohibiting the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of waste.

The European Commission opened the infringement proceedings against Croatia in March 2015, followed by a reasoned opinion sent in November 2016. Since there has been no progress in ensuring proper waste management in Biljane Donje that the waste does not endanger human health and harm the environment, the Commission decided to refer Croatia to the CJEU.

The European Commission decided on 8 March 2018 to refer Croatia to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to ensure an adequate level of protection of human health and the environment at 'Crno brdo' site in Biljane Donje, near the town of Benkovac.