The European Commission announced on Thursday 18 February that it has referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Slovakia concerning EU air quality law, Germany concerning the rules of the Habitats Directive, Poland concerning noise levels on major transport routes, and Slovenia concerning waste water treatment.
Air quality. The European institution criticises Slovakia for having infringed the EU directive on ambient air quality (2008/50) by exceeding the daily limit values for the concentration of particulate matter (PM10) in the air quality measuring zone of Banskobystrický kraj during the 2005-2019 period (except for 2016) and in the agglomeration of Košice during the 2005-2019 period (except for 2015 and 2016).
Moreover, while Member States are obliged to act to ensure that the period of time during which these limits are exceeded is as short as possible, the measures presented by Bratislava “do not contribute to limiting as much as possible the periods of excess”, the Commission observes.
Noise pollution. Poland, for its part, is being referred to the Court on the grounds that its national legislation does not guarantee the establishment of adequate action plans to combat noise, in breach of the provisions of Directive 2002/49.
Action plans have still not been drawn up for 20 major Polish railways and 290 major roads, although the deadline for adopting them has passed, the Commission notes.
Urban waste water. The Commission alleges that Slovenia has breached Directive 91/271, which requires Member States to ensure that agglomerations (cities, towns and villages) collect and treat their urban waste water properly.
Four Slovenian agglomerations with more than 10,000 inhabitants (Ljubljana, Trbovlje, Kočevje and Loka) do not comply with European requirements for the treatment of this water, the institution believes.
Habitats Directive. As regards Germany, the Commission considers that the country has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Habitats Directive (92/43).
According to EU legislation, Member States must designate Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and establish specific conservation objectives for each site.
However, a significant number of sites have still not been designated as SAC areas by Germany and “there has been a general and persistent practice of not setting sufficiently detailed and quantified conservation objectives for all 4,606 sites of Community importance, in all Länder and at the federal level”, the Commission considers.
Białowieża Forest. Finally, the Commission has launched a new infringement proceeding against Poland, which has still not fully complied with the April 2018 judgment of the Court of Justice that forest management operations at the Natura 2000 Puszcza Białowieska site infringe the Habitats and Birds Directive (2009/147) (see EUROPE 12003/29).
In particular, the Polish authorities have not replaced the annex to the forest management plan for the Białowieża Forest with measures preserving the integrity of the protected site.
Despite meetings at the technical level during which it expressed its concern and offered its advice, “the situation has not changed”, the Commission regrets.
Warsaw has two months to take the appropriate measures, failing which the EU institution could refer the matter back to the Court and propose the imposition of financial penalties. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot with Mathieu Bion)