Campaign in Pezinok against the Local Landfill in Slovakia

In 2008, Greenpeace Slovakia supported a small local campaign against the planned construction of a landfill in the city of Pezinok, in western Slovakia. Thanks to massive support from the local community, the municipality, as well as through cooperation with NGOs Via Iuris (legal aid) and Greenpeace (campaign strategy, action and communication support) this campaign was ultimately successful. The landfill is closed, contains no waste and the license to operate the landfill was abolished by the court.

But, the success story of the civil initiative from the small Slovak town (only around 20,000 inhabitants) continued…

In 2013 the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled - on the basis of the Pezinok legal case - clarifying the rules on public participation in decision-making in the framework of a permit of environmental projects. These rules are now in force for the entire European Union.

Zuzana Čaputová, leader of Pezinok civil initiative and a public interest lawyer who represented an endangered community in more or less all negotiations with the state and in a number of hearings in front of both Slovak and European courts, will be awarded prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize on 18th April 2016 in San Francisco.