Illegal bonfires and trafficking in one of the most tormented areas of southern Italy could have the hours counted: the Council of Ministers has just approved the “Land of Fireworks” Decree, which introduces extraordinary measures to combat environmental crimes and protect public health and the environment.
To accelerate the renovation, an unexpected of penalties was needed, which provides new tools for the combination of environmental crimes and judiciary.
With these words, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Safety, Gilberto Pichetto, and the deputy duty Vannia Gava, who, among other things, also take the arrest also in deferred flagrance for the most serious environmental crimes, such as environmental disaster and illegal waste trafficking, greet.
What provides for the “Land of Fires” Decree
– the arrest also in a deferred flagrante for the most serious environmental crimes, such as environmental disaster and illegal trafficking of waste
– the strengthening of penalties for the abandonment and unauthorized management of waste, with accessory measures such as the suspension of the driving license, the detention of the vehicle and the exclusion from the register of environmental managers for companies that are not in order. To counteract the abandonment of waste from vehicles it will also be possible to use video surveillance images
The decree also allows the judicial administration of the companies involved in polluting activities, especially if linked to organized crime.
To the Single Commissioner, the General Giuseppe VadalàFinally, 15 million euros will go for 2025 for the removal of waste and the start of reclamation activities, which will subsequently be integrated with further resources for reclamation and safety.
But that’s not enough
To make two quick calculations is the CGIL, according to which the decree, albeit due following the judgment of the ECHR on the case of the land of fires, would show the limits of the government’s action, still too far from precise recovery policies and reclamation of the polluted territories.
In Italy there are over 226 thousand hectares of surface on the ground and sea which falls on the 42 sites of national interest – underlines the confederal secretary of the CGIL Pino Gesmundo. But only for 24% of the soil matrix has the pollution were characterized, the first step for the restoration of the areas, and only 5% have been approved of reclamation or safety projects. At this rate, with an average of 11 hectares reclaimed per year, it will take at least 60 years before seeing the concluded process. Furthermore, if we add those of the sites of regional interest to these numbers, the situation raises even more concern: according to the latest ISPRA data (2024), in fact, the sites affected by reclamation procedures in 2023 are a total of 38,556, of which 16,365 with a backward process.
The appeal is still missing, therefore, a national strategy on the reclamation of polluted sites that really look at an environmental renovation of the areas, the health of people and the industrial conversion of the sites.
As CGIL – he announces in conclusion Gesmundo – we intend to immediately open a strong phase of verntance widespread throughout the national territory so that we try to make times and perspectives for the reclamation of polluted sites, and we immediately ask for an extraordinary government table to restore priority to the theme of the environment, of its regeneration in an environmentally friendly industrial vision that knows how to seize the great opportunities for the country.
Sources: Ministry of Environment and Energy Safety / CGIL
Don’t you want to lose our news?
