What Happens If a Country Fails to Comply with EU Environmental Legislation?

In the European Union, there are various environmental directives that member states must comply with. However, states do not always abide by these directives. Sometimes states fail to take adequate measures, for example, to protect fragile ecosystems and species or to prevent pollution.

So what happens then? Can the EU impose fines?

The Role of the Court of Justice

The Court of Justice is the body that ensures compliance with European Union law, and it has the power to prosecute conduct contrary to European environmental law.

Many different types of cases can be brought before this court. One of them, the infringement action, assesses whether the actions and omissions of member states comply with European Union law.

If a state is suspected of failing to fulfil an obligation, the European Commission or any member state may refer the matter to the Court of Justice for assessment. A preliminary procedure is carried out before the Commission, in which the state's position is examined and information is gathered on whether there is an infringement.

Non-Compliance with Environmental Standards

The infringement procedure is an essential tool for assessing how European environmental law is applied by member states. It establishes a dialogue between the defendant state and the European Commission and reveals the difficulties in applying environmental standards and the problems national systems face in fulfilling the obligations they have assumed.

When the case comes before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court will interpret the law and declare whether environmental law has been infringed. The environmental legislation considered to have been infringed in such cases is very diverse and covers practically all areas of environmental action.

Countries That Commit Infringements

An examination of the cases handled by the Court of Justice reveals rulings on non-compliance with regulations on air and water quality, noise, waste dumping, biodiversity protection, and access to information and environmental justice.

For example, some recent rulings issued by the Court of Justice in 2022 clearly show the various issues the Court takes into account in its decisions.

In a ruling dated 13 January 2022, Slovakia was found to have breached its obligations under the Directive on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise. Slovakia had not prepared action plans for the major roads and railways examined by the court and had not submitted summaries of these action plans to the Commission.

Months later, in a ruling dated 22 June 2022, Slovakia was found to be in breach again, this time for failing to comply with the Habitats Directive. Slovakia had not taken adequate measures to prevent the deterioration of habitats in the Special Protection Areas designated for the protection of the capercaillie.

More recently, a ruling was issued against Bulgaria. In this case, too, the court ruled that Bulgaria had infringed the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Bulgaria had not revised its initial assessment, made under the directive, of the good environmental status of its marine waters. Nor had it notified the Commission of the updates made following these reviews, which are one of the key elements of the rule aimed at ensuring that the marine basin achieves good environmental status. A ruling dated 24 June 2021 concerned a finding of non-compliance in Spain. With this ruling, the Court declared that the Water Directive and the Habitats Directive had not been complied with. Spain had not taken adequate measures to prevent the deterioration of habitats in the Doñana protected area in the face of groundwater extraction.

So, Are There Consequences?

If the Court of Justice rules that the legislation has been infringed, the state concerned will be obliged to take all necessary measures to end the infringement. In environmental matters, this means reviewing all of the state's actions to ensure that environmental regulations are properly applied.

It is not always easy to determine whether adequate measures have been taken to enforce the court's judgment. However, notifications to the European Commission are very important for confirming that compliance with European environmental law has been ensured.

If it is found that the judgment has not been properly implemented, a new remedy is provided for non-compliance with the court's earlier ruling. In other words, the case is referred back to the Court of Justice, which assesses whether the necessary measures have been taken to comply with its ruling.

In this second ruling, the court may order the state to pay a financial penalty. The amount set by the court is therefore the main deterrent against non-compliance with the court's rulings and with European environmental law.

The amount will be determined according to the importance of the rule infringed, the seriousness and duration of the infringement, and the economic situation of the infringing state. The methods for calculating these amounts are established separately for each state and are regularly reviewed.

The aim here is to make countries think twice about infringing European environmental legislation.

Source:PHYS

This news article was translated into Turkish by Hazal Gültekin.