European Commission sends Greece to the EU Court of Justice: 66 of 81 landfills do not comply with the rules

On Thursday, 1 October 2026, the European Commission decided to refer Greece and Cyprus to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to correctly implement the Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) and the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), as Agence Europe reports in its 2 October 2026 bulletin.

For Greece, the picture presented by Brussels is bleak: according to the Agence Europe bulletin, after assessing the Greek authorities’ response, the Commission found that only 3 landfills had been closed, while of the remaining 81 landfills, 66 were not in compliance with European rules — around 81 percent of them.

In Cyprus, according to the same bulletin, 21 percent of the waste produced is landfilled without prior treatment. In both countries, the capacity of installations for treating waste before landfilling is insufficient to cope with the quantity of mixed municipal waste, leaving the landfill as the main destination.

The Commission concluded that the efforts of the Greek and Cypriot authorities to correct these shortcomings were insufficient, so it was decided that the case would be sent to the Luxembourg judges.

Referral to the EU Court of Justice is the final step of the infringement procedure: the court will now assess whether Greece and Cyprus have breached their obligations under European waste legislation and may require them to take the necessary measures to comply with the rules.