Judgment in Case C-387/97 Commission v Greece of 4 July 2000: The ECJ imposed on Greece a periodic penalty payment of EUR 20 000 for each day of delay in implementing the measures necessary to comply with a 1992 judgment because Greece had failed to take the measures necessary to ensure that waste is disposed of in the area of Chania without endangering human health and without harming the environment in accordance with Article 4 of Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste; and had failed to draw up for that area plans for the disposal of waste, pursuant to Article 6 of Directive 75/442, and of toxic and dangerous waste, pu ...[+++]rsuant to Article 12 of Council Directive 78/319/EEC of 20 March 1978 on toxic and dangerous waste.

We have to take account of the fact that mining waste has a different potential risk, and, as the Common Position does just that, it is right that the Member States should be able to distinguish between hazardous and non-hazardous waste and reduce – or annul – the conditions placed upon non-hazardous, non-inert waste other than that very precisely defined as hazardous and included in Category A. There is a wide spectrum of mining waste, extending from such harmless materials as playsand, salt and topsoil at one end to the toxic cyanide derived from ore mining at the other.

In its first judgement against Greece dated 7 April 1992, the ECJ declared that, "by failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that in the area of Chania waste and dangerous waste are disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment, and by failing to draw up for that area plans for the disposal of waste and of toxic and dangerous waste, Greece has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4 and 6 of Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Articles 5 and 12 of Directive 78/319/EEC on toxic and da ...[+++]ngerous waste".

Even domestically the government has failed to act on a number of important issues, including the Taro dump site in Hamilton, the clean-up of 24 hazardous toxic sites in Canada, and our endangered species.

This proposal for a directive which was adopted by the Commission on a proposal from Mr Yannis Paleokrassas, the Member with responsibility for environmental policy, aims to revise the definition of the term "hazardous waste", and to put back until 31 December 1994 the date of implementation of Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste, while at the same time deferring the date on which Directive 78/318/EEC on toxic and dangerous waste is repealed, in order to avoid a legal vacuum.

The Community Directive on hazardous waste (91/689/EEC), which was to replace the Directive on toxic waste (78/318/EEC) on 31 December 1993, states that the Commission shall establish a list of hazardous wastes not later than six months before the date of implementation of the Directive.