7 admitted that TSP and PM10 concentrations have always been high and still considerably exceed the EU limit-level standards. 20. The MFHR also argues that there is a negative impact on the environment resulting from inadequate dumping of fly-ash, the stockpiling of lignite without adequate measures to prevent dispersion and the use of depleted mine sites such as the use of the Kardia mine as dump sites for hazardous industrial waste, in violation of waste management regulations. 21. Alternately, the MFHR alleges that these practices result in other forms of pollution, for example of the soil, subsoil and water. Lignite-fired power stations: 22. The MFHR first criticises the national administrative procedure for licensing power stations. 23. It ponits out that, using a sui generis procedure, the power stations of Kardia, Aghios Dimitrios and Ptolemaïda were granted, by law, a provisional joint extension of operation until July 2005, without an individual and specific environmental assessment for each plant. The joint ministerial decisions approving the environmental conditions for these plants had expired in 2002. The Ombudsman has examined petitions from inhabitants of the region concerning the failure to approve environmental conditions, the imminent expiry of the licences and the pollution created by these plants. In his conclusions, published in October 2005 1, the Ombudsman stated that these practices were incompatible with Article 24 of the Greek Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Administrative Court. The latter had in fact ruled that if for any reason a joint operating permit had to be issued, it still had to be based on individual and specific environmental assessments for each unit. The Ombudsman also argued that the procedure followed in this case effectively denied those concerned access to judicial review because, unlike joint ministerial decisions, which were the usual basis for decisions on the siting of plants, the law could not be challenged by the Supreme Administrative Court, the court that generally heard cases concerning such individual decisions. In conclusion, the Ombudsman urged the Government to comply with the procedure laid down in law. The Government did not reply to the Ombudsman and the temporary operating licence had been extended to 31 December 2008. 24. Secondly, the MFHR criticises the continued use of old, high-polluting technology that is incompatible with the ‘best available technology’ requirements laid down by the European Union in its reference document on best available techniques in large combustion plants (BREF LPC) published in May 2005 BREF. It maintains that this approach is not new, as shown by Judgment C-364/03 of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (Commission v Greece, judgment of 7 July 2005), which criticised the lack of policies or strategies for progressively adapting plants in line with the ‘best available technology’, as required under Council Directive 84/360/EEC on the combating of air pollution from industrial plants (subsequently superseded by Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (the IPPC Directive)). 1 Affaires No. 6536 and 6537/2004