Brussels, 04/08/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has initiated infringement procedures against 10 Member States over violation of a directive on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of projects. It has sent a letter of formal notice (first warning) to the following countries: - Austria: Austrian legislation fails to properly reflect the range of criteria set in the directive for determining whether a project should be made subject to EIA. For example, there is no reference to landscapes of historical, cultural or archaeological value. - Belgium: There are shortcomings in legislation at the federal level and at the level of the three regions. There is an absence of any provision for EIA for many project categories in Wallonia and Brussels. - Cyprus: For many categories of projects, the provisions for determining whether an EIA should be carried out are too weak. Recommendations may be made that an EIA be undertaken but these do not have to be followed. There is also too sweeping an exemption for projects serving national defence purposes. - Czech Republic: Czech EIA rules unduly restrict the public's right to go to court to uphold their entitlement to participate in EIA procedures. - Germany: In some cases, German legislation at the federal level operates with thresholds that are too high for certain categories of projects, while Bavarian legislation to a large extent completely excludes case-by-case assessments, which systematically rules out the specific nature and location of a project from being taken into consideration when assessing its potential environmental effects. - Greece: Greek EIA legislation omits provision for a number of project categories (for example: conversion of uncultivated land and semi-natural areas to intensive agriculture) and is also insufficient in terms of the information that a developer must provide. - Luxembourg: This country has not made provision for the EIA of a number of project categories, notably major transport infrastructure. - Malta: Maltese legislation fails to formally ensure that the directive's criteria are used. - Netherlands: The Dutch legislation does not adequately provide for EIA for smaller projects relying on size criteria which do not take account of all the criteria set out in the directive; - Poland: Polish EIA legislation over-relies on size criteria for certain project categories. There is also inadequate provision for EIA of projects with transboundary effect.