The Commission decided on Thursday to open new infringement procedures against Member States for failing to comply with their obligations under EU law and to close several old cases where compliance had been ensured.
The decisions were taken as part of the Commission’s regular package of infringement decisions and included 11 letters of formal notice and 13 reasoned opinions. The Commission also decided to refer three cases to the Court of Justice of the EU.
Finally, 47 cases where Member States had ensured compliance with EU law were closed. According to the Commission, in about 90% of infringement cases, Member States comply with their obligations under EU law before they are referred to the Court.
The infringement procedure consists of four phases. It begins with a request for information (a letter of formal notice) to the Member State concerned which usually must be answered within two months. In next phase, if the Commission is not satisfied with the information, it may send a formal request to the Member State to comply with EU law (a reasoned opinion).
If the Member State still has failed to ensure compliance with EU law, the Commission may decide to refer it to the Court of Justice. In the final phase, the Member State must take the necessary measures to comply with the judgment if the court has ruled against it.
In this package, Belgium received two letters of formal notice. In the environment area, the Commission called on Belgium and Cyprus to comply with the Water Framework Directive which requires Member States to establish a programme to ensure good status of rivers and lakes. Four other Member States (the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia and Finland) had already been notified.
In the area of energy and climate, the Commission called on Belgium and several other countries (Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia) to urgently submit their final updated National Energy and Climate Plans.
Three Member States were referred to the Court: Bulgaria and Romania for their failure to adequately collect and treat urban waste water; Germany for failing to eliminate discriminatory tax treatment of reinvested capital gains on the sale of German real estate. For a complete list of all infringement decisions by policy area, click here.
There are four main types of infringements of EU law:
- failure to notify: a Member State does not notify the Commission on time of its measures to turn a directive into national law;
- non-conformity: the Commission considers that a Member State's law is not in line with the requirements of EU directives;
- infringement of the treaties, regulations or decisions: the Commission considers that a Member State's laws are not in line with the requirements of the treaties, EU regulations or decisions;
- incorrect application: EU law is not applied correctly, or not applied at all, by national authorities.
The Brussels Times
