(LUXEMBOURG) - Italy has not fulfilled its obligation to clear mountains of rubbish dumped in landfill sites and elsewhere, a European court ruled Thursday, as the EU's executive arm mulls further action against Rome.

The European Commission is expected to pronounce in early May on Italy's efforts to deal with mountains of waste in the Naples area. According to a Brussels source, the Italian response to its clear-up call will be declared insufficient and legal action is likely to ensue.

Italy pledged in January to follow through with its emergency plan to clear rubbish from the Naples region after the European Commission gave Rome a one-month ultimatum to resolve the crisis.

The southern Italian city and surrounding Campania region have been under mounds of rubbish since late December when landfill sites reached capacity and garbage collectors went on strike.

Many of the landfills in Campania are controlled by the regional Camorra mafia, who make a lucrative business out of subverting waste-handling procedures and shipping in industrial waste from the north.

The European court in Luxembourg was responding to an earlier action launched against Italy by the Commission in 2006 over Italy's rubbish disposal problem.

European legislation obliges all EU member states to take measures "to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment from landfilling of waste."

The court ruled that Italy "has failed to fulfil its obligations" and ordered Italy to pay the costs of the court case.

Rome's inability to solve the problem has often exasperated EU authorities.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has been particularly scathing about Italy's handling of the Naples rubbish crisis, which has sparked protests and clashes with police there.

"What we are witnessing these days in Naples is not a crisis coming out of the blue," he told members of the European Parliament in January.

"It is the culmination of a more than 14-year-old process of insufficient implementation of European waste legislation for which Italy has repeatedly been condemned by the European Court of Justice."

He said then that the EU's executive body was prepared to initiate legal proceedings against Italy if the problem is not satisfactorily dealt with.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.