Brussels, 26/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - As every month, an avalanche of reasoned opinions were sent out on Thursday 25 September to the member states which, despite one or more calls to order, are still not fully complying with EU environmental legislation. These countries will have two months to clean up their act, or the European Commission may bring them before the Court of Justice of the EU.
Bulgaria has come under fire for two infringements of EU legislation in the field of water. The first reasoned opinion it received regards shortcomings in its transposition into national law of the framework directive on water (2000/60/EC). Although Bulgaria has made changes to its legislation to remedy the loopholes observed, it still has to adopt the required measures to plug the gaps as regards monitoring of the quality developments. The second reasoned opinion calls on Bulgaria fully to bring its national legislation into line with the directive on the quality of water for human consumption (98/83/EC). Many of the problems initially flagged up have now been resolved, but the authorities still need to sort out the remaining issues. Amongst other things, they must ensure that a ban is in place on distributing water for human consumption which constitutes a danger to the health of individuals, or to ensure a limited use of this water.
Spain has been called upon to close down 63 uncontrolled landfill sites, in order to comply with the requirements of the framework directive on waste.
Finland is requested to bring its legislation into line with the framework directive on water. Despite a new Finnish law adopted in 2011, technical issues continue to exist both in mainland Finland and in the Åland Islands. Under the directive, the member states must establish programmes of measures to prevent the deterioration of bodies of water, and these programmes must be updated in line with the hydrographic district management plans as required by the legislation. The Commission takes the view that water conditions could suffer from the timetable proposed by Finland for these updates. It also considers that the Åland Islands should have legislation to allow them to deal with the consequences of unforeseen events, such as flooding.
Latvia is called upon immediately to transpose into its internal law in full the framework directive on waste (2008/98/EC). The Commission is still waiting for this country to adopt corrective measures to transpose the requirements on sub-products, end-of-waste and the management of dangerous waste.
Portugal has been asked to take swift action to limit the exposure of its citizens to fine particle pollution (PM10) from industry, road traffic and domestic heating systems. Under European law, measures should have been in place since 2005 to protect the health of the citizens. The Commission is therefore calling on the Portuguese authorities to take ambitious, swift and effective measures to ensure that the non-compliance period is as short as possible. Under the latest reports for 2012, residents of certain parts of Lisbon, Porto, Aveiro/Ílhavo and Estarreja have, since 2005, been continually or almost continually exposed to PM10 levels which are harmful to health. In November 2012, the Court of Justice ruled against Portugal over excessive levels of PM10 in Lisbon and Porto during the period from 2005 to 2007.
The United Kingdom must complete the transposition into national law of changes to EU legislation on the criteria applicable to the temporary storage of metallic mercury considered a waste product (directive 2011/97/EU modifying directive 1999/31/EC). Following an examination of the changes made to the UK rules on environmental licences and the Scottish rules on landfill, the Commission is not satisfied that the changes to the legislation on mercury storage have been sufficiently and clearly transposed. Metallic mercury is a highly toxic substance to humans, ecosystems and wildlife. (AN)