ITALY:MAINTAINING A promise made during the election campaign, newly installed Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will today hold his first cabinet meeting, not in Rome, but in Naples.
Mr Berlusconi hopes that this gesture will boost the city's thus far inadequate efforts to solve a refuse crisis that has resulted in tons of garbage in the streets of Naples and the surrounding Campania area since Christmas.
This week, the European Union's environment commissioner Stavros Dimas called on Italy to resolve the garbage crisis in order to avoid possible serious consequences for public health. A Naples doctors' association and other observers have expressed their concern that mice, cockroaches and other insects thriving in the mountains of garbage could spread a variety of diseases.
The rubbish collection problem is nothing new in Naples. A Special Commission for Waste Disposal was created as long ago as 1994 in order to deal with a problem greatly exacerbated by the fact that the camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, has major interests in the waste disposal business. This so-called "Ecomafia" has forced the closure of several legal waste treatment centres.
Even without the camorra, Naples has problems dealing with 1,400 tons of waste generated daily by the city and 7,200 tons generated by the region.
The latest phase in the Naples crisis began last Christmas when collections largely ceased because all 16 waste dumps in the Neapolitan area were ruled to be full.
Mr Berlusconi's predecessor, Romano Prodi, attempted to solve the problem by appointing a special commissioner to deal with the problem - experienced police officer Gianni De Gennaro.
He has made some progress by organising the dumping of garbage in other parts of Italy, such as Sardinia, and also in other European countries such as Germany.
Mr Gennaro, however, predicts another crisis in Naples in July when the contracts to haul the garbage to Germany expire. Although many observers argue that Naples badly needs new incinerators, there is no agreement on where such incinerators should be sited.
Prime minister Berlusconi has not yet indicated his plan of action for resolving the crisis but it seems likely he will call on the army, already present in the Naples area, to clean up the mess. Not for the first time, the rubbish problem literally flared up again this week ahead of the cabinet meeting as frustrated Neapolitans set fire to many of the impromptu rubbish dumps currently in the streets.
The cabinet meeting is also likely to focus on another issue, namely the government's plans to crack down on illegal immigration. Supporters of Opera Nomadi, a group that provides assistance to the Roma community in Italy, are expected to protest against the proposed legislation in Naples today.