Brussels, 28/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission left no stones unturned on Thursday 27 January when it decided to move up a stage in the infringement proceedings against member states failing to respect EU environment rules. Reasoned Opinions (the second stage of the proceedings) will be sent to a dozen countries which, despite several warnings, have failed to come into line with EU law. They will now have two months to do so, failing which the Commission can decide to take them to the European Court of Justice. Details of the infringements in question are:
Sea protection - Estonia, Greece, Finland and Malta have not transposed into domestic law, by the 15 July 2010 deadline, EU Directive 2008/56/EC, which is the cornerstone of the EU's marine environment strategy and aims to ensure a good ecological state of the seas of Europe by 2020.
Water quality - Belgium, Estonia and the Czech Republic have failed to notify the Commission of all measures transposing the EU directive on priority substances that aims to protect the environment and public health by setting upper limits for 33 “priority substances” and eight other pollutants that seriously endanger European surface water. The deadline for the member states for transposing the rules was 13 July 2010.
Water management - Spain is required to submit to the Commission its water management plans for all water catchment areas, having missed the 22 December 2009 deadline under the Water Directive (2006/60/EC). Spain has only passed one water management plan to date - for Catalonia. The Commission is still awaiting the country's other 24 plans.
Nature protection - The Commission accuses Romania of authorising a tourist development plan for Sulina Beach in the Danube delta that is likely to be highly damaging to this part of the Natura 2000 pan-European protected habitat network. Projects of this type are only allowed for Natura sites if they protect the full integrity of the site but the assessment provided by the Romanian authorities does not address the Commission's concerns. Information available to the Commission shows that the project is already damaging one species (Centaurea Pontica) protected under the EU Habitats Directive and is also damaging a protected habitat (the Mediterranean salt plains).
Old vehicles - Slovakia has failed to properly transpose into national law EU Directive 200/53/EC on the environmentally-friendly disposal of old vehicles, rules intended to reduce the amount of waste materials left when old cars and vehicles are taken off the road.
In 2009, the Commission pointed out that the Slovak legislation did not provide enough encouragement to manufactures to avoid using dangerous materials by not failing to give a proper definition of “dangerous materials”. The Slovak authorities have changed a law and announced that new waste disposal rules will be passed later this year, but the Commission says this is too late for failings that were pointed out two years ago. (A.N./transl.fl)