Brussels, 13/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to start infringement proceedings against Luxembourg, Malta and Poland for failing to meet European legislation covering the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions as part of the application of the Kyoto Protocol.
These three Member States will receive a first written warning (first stage in procedure under Article 226 of the Treaty) for failing to report their 2003 emissions. The deadline for doing so was 15 January this year. Based on a decision by the Council and parliament on 11 February 2004 (decision 280/2004/EC), Member States are required to submit a report to the Commission by 15 January each year containing the information needed for assessing their progress towards their Kyoto target the six greenhouse gases controlled by the Protocol - carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride - during the year before last and the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere by carbon 'sinks' resulting from land use, land-use change and forestry over the same period.
A Commission press statement indicated that three Member States in question are preventing the completion of the synthesis report covering the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions in 2003 and meet its obligation to publish and submit these to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in time.