Vilnius city council to hold emergency meeting on waste crisis

Vilnius City Council will convene an emergency meeting on Friday to address the ongoing waste management crisis in the capital region, LRT reports.

The extraordinary session, scheduled for July 31, was initiated by council member and leader of the “Lithuania for All” party, Aleksandras Nemunaitis, who gathered the required signatures from more than one-third of the council members. A minimum of 17 signatures is needed to call such a meeting.

The agenda will focus solely on discussing measures to ensure the proper management of municipal waste in Vilnius.

The crisis emerged following a fire at Vilnius’ waste sorting plant last year, which has yet to resume full operations. Additionally, the Vilnius cogeneration power plant reduced its waste incineration capacity. Last week, the Vilnius District Court ordered the company “Energesman” to transfer the operation of the Vilnius regional mixed waste sorting plant to the Vilnius County Waste Management Centre (VAATC).

VAATC announced on July 10 its decision to terminate its contract with “Energesman,” prompting the latter to appeal to the Vilnius Regional Court. However, the court rejected the company’s request for interim measures to halt the unilateral contract termination.

VAATC has since secured agreements with “Ecoservice,” “Ekonovus,” and “Ekobaze” to handle 100% of the region’s waste sorting. VAATC filed a lawsuit on July 16 after “Energesman” allegedly obstructed its representatives from accessing the plant following the contract termination notice.

“Energesman” had sought to suspend VAATC’s July 10 decision to unilaterally terminate the contract, but the Vilnius Regional Court ruled this week against the company’s request. According to the court, the contract remains in effect as “Energesman” was granted 20 working days to rectify potential breaches.