Financial penalties on four Member States

April 27, 2012

Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia failed to to meet the December 2010 deadline to transpose the EU's Waste Framework Directive into national law.

On the recommendation of Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik, the European Commission is asking the Court to impose penalty payments on the four countries in question. In parallel, Belgium is receiving an additional reasoned opinion for its failure to notify the Commission of its transposition of the same Directive. If Belgium fails to adopt and communicate the necessary legislation within two months, the Commission may also refer the case to the EU Court of Justice and ask for financial penalties.

The financial penalty payments requested are as follows:

Bulgaria: 15 220 € per day

Hungary: 27 316 € per day

Poland: 67314 € per day

Slovakia: 17 136 € per day

If Member States fail to transpose EU legislation into national law within the required deadline, the Commission may ask the Court for financial sanctions to be imposed at the first referral to Court, without having to return to the Court for a second ruling. The penalties take into account the seriousness and duration of the infringements. They consist of daily penalty payments to be paid from the date of the judgment – assuming the countries are still not compliant – until transposition is completed.

European Commission

back