Papers Today

// EU green law infringements update

Belgium has breached EU's 2000 ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) regulation, the European court of justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday. Belgium has failed to define minimum qualification levels for handlers of ODSs and has not taken all preventive measures to reduce ODS leaks in some parts of the country, the court said.

Meanwhile the European commission is launching an ECJ case against Italy for allegedly failing to comply with the EU's Seveso directive on preparing for the effects of major industrial accidents.

The commission says more than 20 per cent of relevant installations do not have emergency plans and "little suggests the current shortcomings will be overcome soon". Embarrassingly for Rome, the law was prompted by and named after an accident in northern Italy in 1976.

The commission is also sending final warnings of court action against Italy over EU maritime safety rules, Poland over transposition of the EU's energy-using products (EuP) directive and Hungary over EU bird protection laws.

Follow-up: See ECJ ruling in case C-522/06
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=c-522/06
and commission releases on Italy (Seveso
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/526 and
maritime safety
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/521),
Poland
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/527 and
Hungary
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/525.
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