On Wednesday 20 July, the European Commission sent letters of formal notice to 26 Member States that have not yet communicated the national measures taken to fully transpose several directives for which the transposition deadline has expired.
In detail, letters of formal notice have been sent to all EU Member States except Estonia, Italy and Denmark for not having transposed the Accessibility Directive for products and services (2019/882) into national law.
The directive – which is intended to ensure that certain products and services, such as public transport, banking services and online shops, are accessible to people with disabilities – should have been fully transposed by 28 June 2022.
In addition, letters of formal notice were also sent to Belgium, Greece, Spain, Austria and Portugal for non-transposition of the Directive on the common system of VAT and excise duties applicable to EU defence efforts (2019/2235).
This directive, which introduces, among other things, an exemption from VAT and excise duties for supplies to the armed forces when deployed outside their own Member State, should have been fully transposed by 30 June 2022.
Finally, the Commission also singled out 14 Member States – including Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and Italy – for failing to transpose the Directive on the use of key information documents by management companies of undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) (2021/2261) into national law.
The Directive requires each UCITS to provide ‘key investor information’, including, from 1 January 2023, a key information document for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products so that private investors can better understand and compare the product they are buying.
The Member States concerned now have 2 months to respond to these ‘non-communication infringement procedures’ and complete the transposition of the directives concerned. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)