Brussels, 13/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to pursue legal action against France, which despite several warnings, is still not respecting Community legislation on the environment. France, in six separate cases, has failed to comply with judgements of the European Court of Justice. Article 228 of the Treaty gives the Commission power to act against a Member State that does not comply with legislation allows the Commission to ask the Court to impose a financial penalty on the Member State concerned. Details of each case and the infringement and state of the proceedings are as follows:
Protection of nature: France will receive a reasoned opinion (second stage of the procedure) for non-respect of directive 92/43/EEC, known as the "Habitats directive". the Court found the Member State guilty of not having notified the complete list of national nature sites needing special protection and thus are hampering the completion of the Natura 2000 network (Court ruling 11 September 2001, case C-220/99). Another reasoned opinion for non respect of the 74/409/EEC directive on protection of wild birds (ruling of 26 November, C-202/01 case). The Commission considers that the overall level of designation is still manifestly deficient. Only about 60% of these 265 sites have so far been designated since 1981.
Access to environmental information: France will receive a reasoned opinion for several shortcomings related to the EU's Access to Environmental Information Directive (Court ruling of 26 June 2003, C-233/00). France has resolved all except one of the shortcomings. The outstanding problem relates to the failure of the French legislation to require that, where public authorities implicitly refuse environmental information, citizens are provided with the reasons for refusal.
Water pollution: France will receive a reasoned opinion for not having transposed into internal law directive 76/464/ECC on pollution caused by a range of dangerous substances that may cause harm if they are discharged to water (ruling of 1 June 2003, Case C-130/01).
Ecological elimination of end-of-life vehicles. France will receive a reasoned opinion for having failed to transpose an EU directive 2000/53/EC (Case C-331/03).
Use of genetically modified micro-organisms . France will receive a reasoned opinion for having failed to correctly transpose an EU directive on emergency plans and information to the public about emergency measures (Case C-429/01, court ruling of 27 November 2003).
In a press release Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "I am concerned at the high number of Court judgements that have not been respected by France. Acting on Court judgements quickly and effectively is vital not only for the environment but also to demonstrate that Member States take their European commitments seriously."