Brussels, 25/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Thursday 24 September that it had referred Germany and Lithuania to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).
The Land of North Rhine-Westphalia has failed, the Commission says, to implement the action plan submitted to comply with Directive 2005/65/EC on enhancing port security.
The deadline for the implementation of the directive was 15 June 2007. By 2014, the Land had still failed to come into line with directive requirements. Consequently, in September 2014, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Germany urging it “to adequately fulfil its obligations regarding the port security assessments and plans in the North Rhine-Westphalia ports”. As no such result has been achieved, the Commission is now taking this case to the Court of Justice.
Lithuania is also in the Commission's sights for failure to correctly transpose the rail safety rules contained in Directive 2004/49/EC. The country stands accused of failing to establish a safety authority and also an independent accident and incident investigation body. More specifically, Lithuania failed to ensure, through its national law, the independence of the investigation body. The directive should have been implemented by 30 April 2006.
Three reasoned opinions. The Commission also sent reasoned opinions to Cyprus and Romania calling on them to fully implement Directive 2013/38/EU on port state control. Lastly, Denmark has also incurred the wrath of the Commission for incorrect transposition of regulation No 1072/2009 on cabotage rules in road transport. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)