EU Blasts Crete Energy Plant

The government of Greece had to face the anger of the European Union for not taking sufficient measures to safeguard the Cretan environment from pollution.
The European Court of Justice passed a guilty verdict on a suit by the European Commission against the Greek government for breaching EU environmental guidelines.
The EU action came in the wake of the government’s inability to prepare or implement policies to install environment-friendly technologies at the polluting electricity plant owned by the Public Power Corporation, located at Linoperasmata, Crete.
The Greek government had argued that making the plant environment-friendly using costly technologies would make the power plant economically unsustainable. The court, however, rejected the economic-viability argument of the government, pointing out to the large customer-base of the power plant, which stood at 6.7 million.
The court agreed that the Greek government had taken some steps to rectify its mistakes, but criticized the country for not having a comprehensive strategy in place to deal with environmental pollution.