Terra dei fuochi: stricter penalties for litterers on the way

With today's approval by the Council of Ministers of the decree for the decontamination of the 'Terra dei fuochi' (Land of Fires), comes a clampdown on waste abandonment with a reorganisation of the Consolidated Environmental Act. In fact, the measure establishes three progressive levels of offence to which distinct offences will correspond. It starts with the mere abandonment of waste, for which, however, there is a tightening of penalties with higher sanctions (from 1,500 to 18 thousand euro, today the range is 1,000-10 thousand euro). And a qualified case is also introduced if the perpetrators of the offence are company owners or persons in charge of bodies: abandonment is punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine from EUR 3 thousand to EUR 27 thousand. The second offence regulates special cases, starting with that in which danger to life or limb derives from the act: the penalty is imprisonment from six months to five years. Finally, the third offence focuses on the abandonment of hazardous waste, with an increase in the penalty if the offence concerns, for example, contaminated or potentially contaminated sites.

Tougher penalties will also be imposed for the unauthorised handling and illegal burning of waste. And harsher penalties are also envisaged for illegal shipment, which is turned into a crime as is already the case in supranational law.

Among the innovations introduced, the decree then modifies the Highway Code by sanctioning the conduct of those who defile or sully the road with objects other than waste. Finally, an expenditure of 15 million euro is authorised for 2025 to support the interventions planned by the single commissioner for the Terra dei Fuochi, General Giuseppe Vadalà.

Also awaited at Palazzo Chigi is the scheme for the commissioning of the National Agency for Regional Health Services (Agenas). After the surprise resignation of the director general, Domenico Mantoan, on 30 December last, the agency has been left without a strategic guide. This is why today the Cdm could intervene. The most popular name in these hours is Amerigo Cicchetti, former head of the Health Planning Directorate of the Ministry of Health and still working in the offices of Lungotevere a Ripa as an expert.

At the head of the agency, whose roles include those related to the implementation of the NRP and the elimination of waiting lists with the management of the digital platform, Giulio Siccardi succeeded as acting director general and first Manuela Lanzarin and then Milena Vainieri as acting president. Vainieri's term of office also expired in recent days. And so we are now at today's meeting of the Cabinet with the appointment of the commissioner and awaiting an agreement on the chairmanship with the State-Regions Conference.