"Greece is ordered to pay the European Commission a periodic penalty payment of 12,500 euros for each day of delay... and a lump sum of 5.5 million euros," the court said in a press release.

In an ongoing case stemming from a 2014 judgment, Greece had failed to shut down a landfill in the Zakynthos National Marine Park, a vital habitat of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).

After a back and forth with Athens that lasted several years, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice in 2017 and, in 2024, brought a new action for failure to fulfil obligations before the Court, the statement said.

According to the court, Greece had neither drawn up a development plan for the continued operation of the Zakynthos landfill in accordance with EU requirements nor decommissioned the landfill, which continued to receive waste until the end of 2017.

"That infringement poses a significant risk to the environment and human health," it said.

Also known as Zante, Zakynthos hosts around a thousand nests but also hundreds of thousands of tourists per year.