Information on the movement of industrial waste from Apulia to Sicily

2.10.2015

Question for written answer P-013466-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Ignazio Corrao (EFDD) , Rosa D'Amato (EFDD)

On 21 April 2015, 9 142 tonnes of industrial waste from the Ilva Taranto plant, carried on the motor ship Rita Br, were unloaded at the port of Augusta.

On 6 May 2015 the Italian Minister for the Environment confirmed that the waste had indeed been moved, but added that its storage in Sicily should be considered a temporary arrangement, as the waste was to be disposed of on Ilva’s Taranto site once the company waste management plan had been implemented and new facilities put into operation.

The site to which the waste has been delivered lies within an area straddling the Sicilian municipalities of Augusta, Melilli, and Priolo that has been declared to constitute a high risk from the environmental point of view. According to calculations made in 2008, the funds needed in order to clean up the area amount to EUR 774.5 million.

Under the operating rules for the storage site, priority has to be given to waste produced in the vicinity of the environmentally high-risk area.

The waste is apparently to be transported back from Augusta to Taranto, but it has proved impossible to establish what categories of waste were sent in the first place.

Is the Commission aware that waste has been moved from Apulia to Sicily? What type of waste is involved?

Will the Commission seek information from the national authorities concerned, given that an infringement procedure is in progress?