Greece is to face the European Union’s top court for failing to upgrade the country’s flood risk management scheme as per EU requirements. The move comes five months after torrential rains flooded the country’s fertile Thessaly plain, causing immense damage to crops and livestock and raising doubts about the country’s capacity to cope with regional climate conditions that are becoming more volatile and hard to predict.
Current EU rules require member states to update their flood management plans on a six-yearly basis in order to offset the potential risk posed by flooding to human lives, the environment and economic activities in general.
Just a year ago, the European Commission formally notified authorities in Athens that Greece should finalise its flood management plans. However, according to an EC statement issued this week, so far, Greece has failed to comply adequately.
“The Commission considers that efforts by the Greek authorities have, to date, been insufficient and is therefore referring Greece to the Court of Justice of the European Union,” the EC statement declared.
Greece’s environment ministry, meanwhile, says that the EC has been notified of the country’s plans to review the flood management plan by early summer.
Last month, the EC sued seven other member states – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, Ireland, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia – for their failure to meet their individual reporting obligations about flood management.
