24.11.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 366/24

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declare that the Republic of Cyprus has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 14 of Council Directive 1999/31/EC (1) of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste, because not all the sites for the uncontrolled landfill of waste that operated on Cypriot territory have been decommissioned or been rendered compliant with the requirements of the directive;

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order the Republic of Cyprus to pay the costs.

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According to Article 14 of Directive 1999/31, existing landfill sites already in operation at the time of transposition of the directive may continue to operate only if the steps required by the European legislation are accomplished by 16 July 2009; otherwise their operation must cease.

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The Cypriot authorities themselves acknowledge that, of the 115 sites for the uncontrolled landfill of waste (which because of the ‘uncontrolled’ nature of the waste disposal and management, do not fulfil the criteria of Article 14 of Directive 99/31 so as to be able to continue to operate) formerly operating on Cypriot territory, two remain in operation in the districts of Nicosia and Limassol and they are not expected to be decommissioned before the middle of 2015 or the beginning of 2016.

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A certain improvement has been noted as regards waste management in Cypriot territory, but that occurred after a substantial delay since, under Article 14 of Directive 99/31, the necessary steps should have been completed by 16 July 2009, despite that, as the Cypriot authorities accept, two sites for the uncontrolled landfill of waste continue to operate without control and therefore the infringement of Article 14 of the directive remains, and is not expected to cease at least for the next three years.