A staggering 35 tonnes of waste from Germany is alleged to have been dumped over the Polish border in a scandal that may result in legal action between the two neighbouring states.
On Wednesday (July 26), Polish environment minster Anna Moskwa urged Germany to reclaim the waste.
She told a press conference that Warsaw had already filed a complaint to the European Comission – the first step towards potential legal proceedings.
The minister claimed that waste was dumped by Germany into seven different Polish areas.
She remarked that German authorities – both national and local – failed to respond to their request to remove the rubbish. Berlin, according to Ms Moskwa, was passing the buck onto regional politicians.
Moskwa said: “We have intervened multiple times with our German western neighbors, both at the state and federal levels, calling for the removal of the German garbage that is illegally lying on Polish soil.
“The federal government replied that it was the competence of the German States, while the states were in no hurry to take any action.”
Moskwa, in a nod to Germany’s three-way coalition government, a third of which is formed by the Green Party, said she was appealing to the country’s “extremely green government”.
She added: “We filed a complaint with the European Commission, which is the first stage of proceedings before sending it to the Court of Justice of the European Union.”
Despite Poland’s protestations and alleged contact with the European Commission, Brussels has said it has not received any official communication from member state.
Germany’s Environment Ministry said it had not received the complaint was wasn’t able to comment on it specifically.
Spokesperson Christopher Stolzenberg did say however that illegal waste exports was something of concern for the German government.
Distancing central government from the issue, the spokesperson said that state administrations were responsible for handling illegal exports but noted that Berlin will help “informally” where possible.
Although it’s an issue few Brits have to contend with, foreign waste dumps is a significant problem in Poland and it’s become politically charged as the nation prepares for elections later this year.
Last weekend alone around 5,000 tonnes of chemical waste burned down a storage facility in western Poland.
Law and Justice – Poland’s ruling party – blamed the catastrophe on the previous administration which the party claims allowed the import of hazardous waste during its period in office.
The opposition hit back however saying it hadn’t been in power since 2015 and that the current government had failed to adequately manage the country’s waste.
