Brussels, 12/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Monday to send three reasoned opinions and two letters of formal notice to Belgium for failing to comply with European legislation on the environment.
The written warnings relate to the following breaches of EU law: - failure to comply with Directive 85/337 which stipulates that an environmental impact assessment is compulsory for certain public and private works; in this case the Flemish authorities failed to carry out an assessment before beginning major roadworks on the "Leien Boulevard", the Antwerp inner ring road; - failure to transpose the Water Framework Directive into national law; - and failure to transpose the directive on the EU system for trading greenhouse gas emission rights. If Belgium does not come into line with these reasoned opinions in the next two months, the Commission will initiate action at the Court of Justice against it.
Belgium has been sent written warnings because it did not communicate to the Commission: - plans or programmes for reducing pollution in areas where air quality is not satisfactory as set out in Directive 96/62; - and complete reports on the use of methyl bromide on crops.