The European Commission has closed the infringement procedure against Bulgaria after the country reclaimed all old landfills and fulfilled its obligations under the Landfill Directive.

The EC's decision is from 24 April this year and comes after the country reported last December that all 113 landfills subject to the 2015 CJEU ruling had been closed and reclaimed. On 17 November 2023 the reclamation of the last non-compliant municipal landfill was completed. The Commission verified the implementation of the completed reclamation activities of all 113 municipal landfills.

With the closure of this infringement procedure, Bulgaria has avoided paying the serious financial fines that threatened our country if it did not comply with the requirements and remedy the breaches of EU landfill law.

The results of landfill closure and reclamation are minimization of environmental contamination, prevention of potential contamination of water sources, capture and removal of landfill gas safely and in a controlled way from the landfill body, and improvement of living conditions for the population.

The aim of landfill closure and reclamation is to consolidate the land on which waste has been accumulated and to ensure maximum sustainability and containment of the waste. It protects against leachate infiltration into waterways, stops the release of odours and particulates, and stops the spreading of plastics, paper and other light fractions.

The Court of Justice of the EU decision of 16 July 2015 concluded that Bulgaria failed to close 113 non-compliant non-hazardous waste landfills by July 2009. In the autumn of 2021, the European Commission warned that the country would face significant financial fines before the Court of Justice of the EU for the 43 non-hazardous waste landfills out of the 113 - the subject of the infringement procedure - still not remediated.