Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-318/23

PRESS RELEASE No 59/25 Luxembourg, 8 May 2025 Judgment of the Court in Case C-318/23 | Commission v Slovenia (Bukovžlak landfill) Waste management: the Court imposes a financial penalty on Slovenia for having failed to comply with its obligations with regard to the landfilling of waste The Court previously made an initial ruling, in a 2015 judgment, that Slovenia had failed to fulfil its obligations By judgment of 16 July 2015, 1 the Court of Justice, hearing an action brought by the Commission, ruled that Slovenia had infringed EU law on waste management. 2 That infringement was linked, in particular, to the existence of an illegal landfill in the municipality of Teharje (Bukovžlak), in so far as Slovenia had authorised the deposit of excavated earth without ascertaining whether other waste had been deposited on that site and without taking any measures to remove the unauthorised waste. Since Slovenia failed to adopt the measures necessary to comply with that judgment, the Commission, in May 2023, brought a new action for failure to fulfil obligations, seeking an order that Slovenia pay a lump sum. 3 The Court upholds that action and finds that, upon expiry of the period prescribed by the Commission, 4 Slovenia had not complied with the judgment of 16 July 2015. The Court finds that that Member State had sufficient time in which to achieve the rehabilitation of the landfill in question and that the delay cannot be justified, in particular,...