The European Commission launched the infringement procedures on Wednesday against 14 member states, Romania included, for failing to comply with reporting on the obligations on implementing more EU waste rules, informs a press release issued by the EU executive.
The procedures launched on Wednesday against Cyprus, Romania, France, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Malta, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia and Luxembourg address the failure to provide reports regarding the achievement of reusing, recycling and valorisation targets, according to the waste framework directive (Directive 2008/98/EC), the electrical and electronic equipment waste directive (Directive 2002/96/EC), the batteries directive (Directive 2006/66/EC), the packaging directive (Directive 94/62/EC), the end of the vehicles lifespan directive (Directive 2000/53/EC) and the waste shipment regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006). The nature and type of obligations vary from one directive to another, according to Agerpres.
Separately, on Wednesday, the European Commission urged Austria, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania to fully transpose the EU legislation regarding the harbours reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues.
Directive (EU) 2015/2087 amendeded the EU rules (Directive 2000/59/EU) requiring vessels to notify certain information before entering port, such as the volumes and types of waste to be delivered and the capacity of storage on board. The directive also added the requirement to notify information on what was actually delivered to the take-off facilities at the last harbour of call.
The Commission Directive has been adopted to ensure the coherence with the measures adopted at the level of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and to avoid uncertainty among users and port authorities. The Directive had to be transposed into the national law by December 9th 2016 at the latest, but so far Austria, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania have not transposed it. The four member states have two months to remedy the situation; otherwise the Commission may decide to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the EU.