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OO RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHTH #1689/01 3531000
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O 181000Z DEC 08 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2938
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001689 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EIND SENV SOCI PREL GR
SUBJECT: GREECE PLAYS HOOKY ON EU WASTE DIRECTIVES 
 
REF: ATHENS 1457 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary:  Greece's lackluster performance on waste 
management likely will result in another serious reprimand by 
the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for the country's 
inability to meet EU directives.  Greece was referred to the 
ECJ on over twenty occasions in 2007 for a failure to 
implement EU legislation in general.  With one of the poorest 
records of all EU member states on waste, Greece has made 
some inroads in improving its management system, but 
continues to face challenges in collection and treatment 
systems, both of which are managd by the municipalities. 
EconOff met with two experts, one from the GoG who works with 
municipalities and one from academia, to discuss this 
pressing issue and what Greece is doing to rectify its 
record.  End Summary. 
 
Background on Waste in Greece 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Greece generates close to 5 million tons of waste a 
year, 90 percent is disposed in landfills and the remainder 
sent to a compost.  Greece has traditionally argued against 
incineration of its waste.  Until the mid '90s, waste 
disposal in Greece included 4,850 dumpsites, 70 percent of 
which were uncontrolled.  Deputy Interior Minister 
Athanassios Nakos recently announced that 1,454 illegal dumps 
have been shut down and work was underway to close and 
restore (clean up) 1,093 by the end of the year.  To comply 
with a 2007 ECJ decision against Greece for 1,102 illegal 
dumps, he said the GoG shut down 806 dumps and were restoring 
280 dumps. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Some progress has been made in the area of 
packaging waste, (one-third of packaging is unofficially 
recycled), but the GoG still has a long way to go to fully 
comply with EU directives on all types of waste.  Although 
municipalities have oversight over coordination and planning, 
twelve out of 23 municipalities are still not compliant with 
a 2007 ECJ ruling.  Moreover, the  European Commission 
announced that it will send Greece a final notice on another 
noncompliant waste landfill in the west of Athens.  If Greece 
does not respond within two months, it could potentially face 
legal action in the ECJ and may have to pay steep fines. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Greece has already been cited and fined for 
previous infringements.  In 2000, the ECJ fined Greece a 
daily penalty of 20,000 euros, amounting to 4.72 million 
euros total, for an illegal dumpsite in Crete.  In response, 
the government funneled the waste to a temporary storage 
waste site and closed the illegal site in February 2001.  In 
spite of this measure, in 2005, the ECJ opened a new case 
against Greece for not closing the temporary storage site and 
for its inappropriate closure of the former site, both of 
which were judged to pose hazards to both human health and 
the environment.  Contrary to growing evidence of 
non-compliance by Greece, Deputy Minister of Interior 
Athanasios Nakos announced on December 13 at a solid waste 
management conference in Thessaloniki that "the unpleasant 
prospect" of fines being imposed on Greece by the ECJ over 
Greece's landfills was becoming more remote since Greece was 
making stronger efforts towards waste management regulation. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In two separate meetings with visiting EUR Deputy 
Assistant Secretary Colleen Graffy in October, Members of 
Parliament (MP) from the Environment Standing Committee 
pointed to waste management as an area of concern on Greece's 
environmental agenda. (reftel)  GoG interlocutors welcomed 
dialogue with USG interlocutors and potential engagement with 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on how to implement 
best practices in waste management. 
 
GoG Points to an Ineffective Waste System 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) According to the 2003 National Waste Plan, the 
municipalities are responsible for collection of waste as 
well as waste disposal.  However the issue also falls under 
the authority of Waste Management Authorities and larger 
associations of municipal authorities.  The second level of 
local government responsible for waste management consists of 
prefectural authorities to coordinate on a regional level as 
well on waste management in order to get funds for public 
works projects.  At the Ministry of Rural Development and 
Food, Dr. Triantafyllia Charitopoulou assists local 
municipalities in Greece with their strategic plans on 
infrastructure, water and solid waste management funded under 
 
ATHENS 00001689  002 OF 002 
 
 
a 6.7 billion euro EU fund. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Charitopoulou said that municipalities know they 
need waste management alternatives.  At present, each 
municipality has to pay a percentage to a waste management 
association before they get any government funds under a 
"polluter pays" principle.  The problem with the system, she 
said, is that there is no incentive to encourage waste 
minimization, although some of the waste is supposedly 
separated into recyclable material and compost.  Athens, 
which produces most of the waste in a concentrated area, 
still struggles with the placement of its landfills.  (Note: 
The citizens of Greece continue to be strongly opposed to the 
creation of legally authorized landfill sites.  End Note.) 
 
¶8. (SBU) Charitopoulou said she worked on recycling efforts 
for Dora Bakoyannis when she was the Mayor of Athens.  Under 
Bakoyannis, Athens had launched a public awareness campaign 
on recycling in Athens and developed three types of recycle 
bins based on material type.  Materials and regular waste get 
placed inside bins, because people do not know what recycling 
is, according to Charitopoulou.  However, she said that 
Greece was having better luck with commercial companies, 
which pay a fee to have their packaging material recycled. 
Greece has an EU-set target to recycle 25 percent of its 
waste by 2010; however, the majority of its recycling efforts 
are directed towards packaging materials versus solid waste. 
 
Academics Concerned on GoG's Structure 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) In a separate meeting with Polytechnic University 
Professor Maria Loizidiou, Loizidiou pointed to a convoluted 
government structure designed to deal with waste management. 
The overarching problem is the lack of political will and 
continuity.  "Once the Minister goes, everybody goes.  People 
that come in lose interest, no one cares, and those that have 
power to do things, can not do very much."  (Note:  Minister 
of the Environment and Town Planning Souflias has been 
criticized for not doing enough on the environment in spite 
of efforts by his Deputy Minister Kalogiannis.  End Note.) 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Loizidiou said the Ministry for the Environment, 
Physical Planning, and Public Works (MinEnv) was putting the 
wrong priorities forward and overly emphasizing public works. 
 It would help if a separate Ministry of Environment was 
created, Loizidiou recommended.  She thought it was a mistake 
that the Ministry of Interior has been given oversight over 
solid waste management of municipalities, as it has a 
different set of priorities and stakeholders. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Instead of a clear approach on waste management, 
Loizidiou said the Greeks are caught between locals who do 
not want the landfills in their backyard and strict EU 
directives.  She underscored that if landfills in Greece do 
not meet these regulations, the landfills should be closed. 
Loizidiou said that 3,000 landfills in Greece were closed 
over the last several years in order to comply with EU waste 
directives out of several thousand that had been in 
operation.  Four hundred landfills still need work to meet EU 
standards.  If the landfills do not meet regulations, the EU 
will begin to impose heavy fines on those that remain 
unregulated.  Loizidiou said she hoped that Greece would look 
at new technologies including the use of "thermal treatment," 
another name for incineration, as Greeks have previously 
opposed the alternative. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The environment continues to take a policy 
backseat as a result of the Greek Government's structural 
inadequacies.  With no ministry focused on the issue and 
potential musical chairs on the political scene, it is not 
surprising that Greece will continue to struggle with issues 
like waste management and recycling.  Greece also continues 
to be the EU's problem child on the implementation of its 
directives.  Given that a Greek --Stavros Dimas-- is at the 
helm of the Environment Commission and will continue to stay 
in that position for some time, it is unlikely that Greece 
will be able to continue playing hooky for long under Dimas' 
spotlight.  End Comment. 
SPECKHARD