CASE of DI SARNO and OTHERS V. ITALY.Pdf
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SECOND SECTION CASE OF DI SARNO AND OTHERS v. ITALY (Application no. 30765/08) JUDGMENT [Extracts] STRASBOURG 10 January 2012 FINAL 10/04/2012 This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. 2 DI SARNO AND OTHERS v. ITALY JUDGMENT In the case of di Sarno and Others v. Italy, The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Françoise Tulkens, President, Danutė Jočienė, Dragoljub Popović, Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre, András Sajó, Işıl Karakaş, Guido Raimondi, judges, and Stanley Naismith, Section Registrar, Having deliberated in private on 29 November 2011, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: PROCEDURE 1. The case originated in an application (no. 30765/08) against the Italian Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by eighteen Italian nationals on 9 January 2008. 2. The applicants, a list of whose names is appended to the present judgment, were represented before the Court by one of their number, Mr Errico di Lorenzo, a lawyer practising in Somma Vesuviana (Naples). 3. The Italian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms E. Spatafora, and their former co-Agent, Mr N. Lettieri. 4. The applicants alleged that the poor management by the Italian authorities of the waste collection, treatment and disposal services in the Campania region of Italy, and the lack of diligence of the judicial authorities in prosecuting those responsible, had violated their rights under Articles 2, 6, 8 and 13 of the Convention. 5. On 2 June 2009 the Court decided to give notice of the application to the Government and give it priority treatment (Rule 41 of the Rules of Court). It also decided to rule on the admissibility and merits of the application at the same time (former Article 29 § 3). DI SARNO AND OTHERS v. ITALY JUDGMENT 3 THE FACTS I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 6. Thirteen of the applicants live in the municipality of Somma Vesuviana, in Campania (Italy). The other five work there. 7. From 11 February 1994 to 31 December 2009 a state of emergency (stato di emergenza) was in place in the Campania region, by decision of the then Prime Minister, because of serious problems of solid urban waste disposal. 8. From 11 February 1994 to 23 May 2008 the management of the state of emergency was entrusted to “deputy commissioners” appointed by the Prime Minister and assisted by assistant commissioners. Nine high officials – including four presidents of the region of Campania and the head of the civil emergency planning department of the Prime Minister’s Office – were appointed deputy commissioners. 9. From 23 May 2008 to 31 December 2009 the management of the state of emergency was entrusted to an under-secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office under the head of the civil emergency planning department. A. Waste management in Campania and in the municipality of Somma Vesuviana until 2004 10. Regional Law no. 10 of 10 February 1993 (“Law no. 10/93”) laid down guidelines for the adoption of a waste disposal plan in Campania which was to treat urban solid waste and recyclable materials and halve the number and capacity of landfill sites – with the help of compacting and sorting techniques – between 1993 and 1995. 11. On 9 June 1997 the President of the Region, having been appointed deputy commissioner, drew up a regional waste disposal plan. Among other things, it provided for the construction of five incinerators – four of which would be built on land in the municipalities of Marcianise, Battipaglia, Giugliano and Nola-Marigliano (the last two of these were to serve the municipalities where the applicants lived), and the fifth on a site to be determined at a later date – and also five main landfill sites and six secondary sites. 12. On 12 June 1998 the President of the Region, acting as deputy commissioner, issued a call for tenders for a ten-year concession to operate the waste collection and disposal service in the province of Naples. According to the specifications, the successful bidder would be required to ensure the proper reception of the collected waste, its sorting, conversion into refuse-derived fuel (combustibile derivato da rifiuti – “RDF”) and incineration. To that end, it was to construct and manage three waste sorting 4 DI SARNO AND OTHERS v. ITALY JUDGMENT and RDF production facilities and set up an electric power plant fuelled by RDF, by 31 December 2000. 13. When the tendering process ended on 20 March 2000, the concession was awarded to a consortium of five companies: Fisia Impianti S.p.A. (main contractor), Impregilo S.p.A., Babcock Kommunal GmbH, Deutsche Babcock Anlagen GmbH and Evo Oberhausen AG (subcontractors). 14. Under the terms of a service concession agreement signed on 7 June 2000, the five successful companies undertook to build two RDF production centres in Caivano and Tufino in 300 days, starting on 10 and 14 April 2000 respectively, and another in Giugliano in 270 days, starting from 30 March 2000. The RDF-fuelled power plant to be built in Acerra was to be built in 24 months, starting from a date to be determined later. 15. In the meantime, on 22 April 1999 the deputy commissioner had issued a call for tenders for the waste disposal service concession in Campania. The concession was awarded to FIBE S.p.A. a consortium of companies formed specially for the purpose. On an unspecified date they formed a company called FIBE Campania S.p.A. 16. Under the concession agreement signed on 5 September 2001, FIBE S.p.A. was to build and manage seven RDF production centres and two electric power plants fuelled by RDF. It was also required to ensure the proper reception, sorting and treatment of the waste collected in the region and transform 32% of it into RDF and 33% into compost, and produce 14% of non-recyclable waste and 3% of ferrous waste. 17. In January 2001 the closure of the Tufino landfill site resulted in the temporary suspension of waste disposal services in the province of Naples. To help control the situation the mayors of the other municipalities in the province authorised the storage of the waste in their respective landfill sites on a temporary basis, under section 13 of Legislative Decree no. 22 of 5 February 1997 ... 18. From the end of 2001 to May 2003 seven RDF production centres were built, in Caivano, Pianodardine, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Giugliano, Casalduni, Tufino and Battipaglia. 19. On 22 May 2001 the urban waste collection and transport service of the municipality of Somma Vesuviana was entrusted to a consortium of two companies: C.I.C.-Clin Industrie Città S.p.A. and Ecologia Bruscino S.r.l. On 26 October 2004 the management of the service was handed over to M.I.T.A. S.p.A., a publicly-owned company. DI SARNO AND OTHERS v. ITALY JUDGMENT 5 B. The criminal investigation into the situation of the waste disposal service following the signature of the concession contracts of 7 June 2000 and 5 September 2001 20. In 2003 the Naples Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation (RGNR no. 15940/03) into the management of the waste disposal service in Campania since the signature of the concession contracts on 7 June 2000 and 5 September 2001. 21. On 31 July 2007 the public prosecutor’s office requested the committal for trial of the administrators and certain employees of Fisia Italimpianti S.p.A., FIBE S.p.A., FIBE Campania S.p.A., Impregilo S.p.A. and Gestione Napoli S.p.A. (“the companies”), as well as the deputy commissioner in post from 2000 to 2004 and several officials from his office, on charges of fraud, failure to perform public contracts, deception, interruption of a public service or utility, abuse of office, misrepresentation of the facts in the performance of public duties and conducting unauthorised waste management operations, committed between 2001 and 2005. 22. The members of the companies concerned were accused, inter alia, of having, with the complicity of the deputy commissioner and of officials from his office, failed in their contractual duty to receive and process the region’s waste. The companies themselves were accused of having delayed and in some cases interrupted the regular reception of the waste collected in the RDF production centres, causing refuse to pile up in the streets and the temporary storage sites provided by the mayors or the deputy commissioner. 23. The public prosecutor’s office also accused the companies of having (1) produced RDF and compost by means not provided for in their contracts; (2) failed to carry out the requisite RDF energy recovery operations pending the construction of the RDF power station; (3) sub-contracted the transportation of the processed waste produced by the RDF production centres, in breach of the terms of the concession contract; and (4) stocked pollutants from the production of RDF on illegal sites with no effort to protect the environment. 24. The public officials concerned by the committal request were accused of having falsely attested that the companies in question had complied with the laws and contractual provisions governing waste disposal, authorised the opening of non-regulation waste disposal sites, the temporary storage of the RDF pending the opening of the power stations, and the dumping of pollutants produced by RDF production plants, and authorised derogations from the contractual specifications governing RDF production. 25. On 29 February 2008 the preliminary investigation judge ordered the accused to be committed for trial and scheduled the hearing before the Naples Court to be held on 14 May 2008.