Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece and Italy will receive second warnings from the European Commission due to their failure to implement EU waste legislation correctly and in time. If member states do not comply with the Commission's warnings within a two-month deadline, the EU body may decide to refer the cases to the EU Court of Justice.
In Cyprus and Greece, the Commission takes action against several landfills which operate in breach of EU legislation and constitute a serious threat to human health and the environment. France is being asked to bring the definition of packaging and packaging waste in line with the EU Packaging Directive, while Italy has not fully transposed the EU Mining Waste Directive. Germany has missed the December 2010 deadline for transposing the revised Waste Framework Directive into national law. The adoption of transposing legislation is still pending due to the failure of the German parliament's two chambers to reach agreement. A meeting of the conciliation committee is scheduled on 8 February.