Warsaw will take Berlin to the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg for allegedly failing to remove 35 tonnes of waste illegally transported to Poland by German companies and stored at seven sites in the country, Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa announced on Tuesday.
At a press conference in May, the Polish government expressed its will to sue Germany over waste.
“I am convinced that as soon as this week, the complaint will be filed to the European Union Court of Justice,” Moskwa said on Tuesday, as quoted by Money.pl.
By not removing the waste, “which the Germans do not want to take back or finance the clean up,” Berlin is evading responsibility and violates the EU treaty policy, Ozdoba accused Poland’s Western neighbour.
When the Polish government expressed its wish to sue Germany over waste issues in May, Deputy Climate Minister Jacek Ozdoba said Germany “evades fundamental things, like taking care of the environment,” warning that Poland may not allow a situation in which a state that calls itself pro-European and pro-environmental transport its waste to another country.
The Polish government’s decision to take the matter to the EU court was prompted by Berlin’s failure to respond to letters sent by Poland to Germany on the issue since May last year, the government said.
Between 2015 and 2019, the annual amount of waste transported to Poland from other countries rose to over 400,000 tonnes, with 61% coming from Germany, as noted by the investigative journalism outlet OKO.press.
Still, in 2022, for the first time, Poland exported more waste (350,000 tonnes) than it imported (300,000 tonnes), according to the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (GIOŚ).
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)