Brussels, 17/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The many monthly infringement procedures launched on Thursday, 17 October included two member states: Germany and Bulgaria. These two countries will be taken to the Court of Justice (third stage of proceedings) because they are still failing to fully respect EU environment legislation, despite several previous warnings.
Protection of endangered species: Bulgaria is being taken to court over a case involving the Kaliakra region, on a protected area. Thousands of wind turbines and around 500 other projects that could have a damaging impact on the unique habitat and the endangered species living there is infringing the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive on the impact of certain public and private projects on the environment and the “birds” and “habitat” directives.
The Kaliakra region is a migratory route and resting place for highly endangered species. These projects have been authorised without adequate assessments of their effect on the thousands of birds and bats that fly over the site. A reasoned opinion on this matter was sent in June 2012 but while Bulgaria has taken significant steps to restrict the damage, appropriate measures have not been taken to avoid the deterioration of habitats and compensate for any damage that occurs.
Access to justice: Germany is being taken to court over a loophole in its legislation on access to justice in environmental matters. In an effort to comply with a recent ECJ judgement on the question of legal standing, i.e. who exactly can go to court on behalf of the environment, Germany clearly resolved some of the previous issues on environmental law. The Commission is still concerned, however, by apparent gaps in German legislation in this area, which may be restricting citizens' access to justice. Despite a reasoned opinion being sent to the German authorities last April, the Commission considers that little progress has been accomplished to rectify these shortcomings. (AN/transl.fl)