Brussels, 17/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - In two judgments delivered on Thursday 16 July, the Court of Justice found against Ireland for failing to meet its obligations under Community law. In the first, the decision went against Ireland for exempting road construction projects from the requirement for prior environmental impact assessments. More generally, the same ruling criticises Ireland for not making provision for involving the public in environmental impact assessments. These wrongs infringe Council directives 85/337/EEC and 96/61/EC. The second judgment states that public authorities must pay VAT on all activities outside the usual public authority dealings. Irish private car parks had complained that their state equivalents were exempted from paying VAT. The Court found that this breached Council directive 2006/112/EC (case C-554/07). The sanction imposed on the Irish authorities was restricted to paying the costs of all parties. (C.D./transl.rt)