KEDE and 164 Municipalities in the Council

FOR THE FUNERAL FEE

The request to cancel the KEDE and 164 municipalities of the country against three decisions of the Ministry of the Interior, by which “due” sums are withheld from the municipal tax authorities, from the non-payment of waste burial fees and by extension against the Council of State was submitted to the Council of State establishing the imposition of the waste burial fee in the municipalities.

Among the applicants is the Municipality of Ioannita as well as others in Epirus.

In particular, with the first contested decision, the total amount of 48,637,601.30 euros was withheld from the OTAs of the first degree, as allegedly due burial fees for the first half of 2023.

With the second contested decision, the National Recycling Organization (EOAN) was granted a total amount of 129,141,872.00 euros for the repayment of the allegedly owed amount by the local authorities. first grade for the burial fee of the year 2022 and for the burial fee of the first half of the year 2023. The EOAN grant results entirely from withholdings, at the expense of the country’s municipalities, from the CAP owed to them.

With the third contested decision, a total amount of 6,708,689.21 euros was once again withheld at the expense of the country’s municipalities.

It should be noted that the waste burial fee is imposed on the Solid Waste Management Agencies (SWMAs) and on the municipalities or legal entities that belong to the OTAs and exercise the responsibilities of the SWAs. The landfill fee is calculated incrementally, increasing annually starting from the year 2022, and specifically set at 20 euros per ton of waste and increases annually by 5 euros per ton and up to the price of 35 euros per ton.

From January 1, 2026, the burial fee is set at 45 euros per ton of waste and increases to the price of 55 euros per ton from 01.01.2027, which remains constant for the following years.

For 2024, the municipalities will be charged with the amount of 240 million euros for the retroactive payment of the waste burial fee for the years 2022, 2023 and the first half of 2024.

The stated legal grounds for cancellation of the landfill fee

The reasons for canceling the waste burial fee cited by KEDE and the 164 municipalities are as follows:

Faulty transposition into the domestic legal order of the Framework Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste, as amended and in force.

Municipalities and FODSA do not have the competence nor the required resources to build alternative waste management units, and the Greek State has not yet developed the appropriate technological capacity to reduce the volume of waste disposed of through landfill.

Article 38 of Law 4819/2021 contradicts the principles of equality, the rule of law and proportionality (Articles 4 par. 1 and 25 of the Constitution), it imposes the burial fee as an administrative sanction on municipalities without their fault.

The establishment of the burial fee, as attempted by article 38 of Law 4819/2021, is directly and manifestly contrary to the constitutional principle of proportionality (article 25 par. 1 section d of the Constitution) but also to article 102 of the Constitution on economic and administrative autonomy of municipalities.