Brussels, 29/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 29 April, the European Commission decided to take another step in infringement procedures against France and Romania. Despite previous calls to comply, the two member states are still not respecting European environmental law. These two countries will be taken to the European Court of Justice (the third stage of the procedure).
France is being pursued for persistent infringements to the European directive (directive 91/271/EEC) on urban wastewater treatment. The Commission has criticised this country for the inadequate treatment of waste water in 17 agglomerations, despite the fact that member states had until the end of 2005 to guarantee appropriate treatment of waste water in medium-sized agglomerations and discharges to fresh water and estuaries from small agglomerations. The French authorities have still not done what is needed to comply with European legislation, which means that there is still a threat to public health and the environment.
The list of agglomerations that should have been compliant includes Goyave, Bastelica, Borgo Nord, Morne à l'eau, Vincey, Aiguille Château Ville Vieille, Etueffont, Isola, Plombières-les-Bains, Saint-Cere, Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, Villeneuve, Volx, Braine, Coggia, Corte and Petit-Bourg. In 2009, a warning letter was sent to France regarding the poor treatment of waste water from the major agglomerations (those containing between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants) for which member states had until the end of 2000 to guarantee appropriate treatment of this kind of water.
Romania is being referred to the EU Court of Justice over its failure to enact revised EU legislation on packaging waste into domestic law (the Commission's EU directive 2013/2/EU, amending annex 1 of the European Parliament and Council's directive 94/62/EEC) despite the fact that the deadline to do so was on 30 September 2013 at the latest.
Despite being sent a warning letter on 29 November 2013 and a reasoned opinion on 11 July 2014, the Romanian authorities have still not rectified this shortcoming.
EU legislation in this area is intended to prevent or reduce the impact of packaging on the environment. It aims to provide a high level of environmental protection, and safeguards the functioning of the internal market by removing obstacles to trade, market distortion and restriction of competition. The revised Packaging Directive updates rules on packaging and packaging waste and amends the list of examples that constitute packaging, with a view to introducing greater legal security. (Aminata Niang)