EU serves Malta with seven warnings

Brussels yesterday decided to proceed against Malta for not complying with EU legislation in seven separate issues.

Following a meeting of the College of Commisisoners in Brussels, during which 550 new infringement cases against the 27 member states were decided, the Commission made public its decisions regarding seven of Malta's cases.

This does not exclude the possibility of more infringements against Malta being issued, however these are not necessarily made public by the Commission.

The environment, which comprises almost 50 per cent of the EU acquis, remained top on Malta's infringement list.

Apart from spring hunting, over which the Commission yesterday issued a final warning (see front page), three other environmental issues were decided on.

Yesterday's Commission warnings were the following:

- Air Pollution: Malta has been asked together with another 22 member states to provide information on the measures being taken to reduce the levels of airborne particles known as PM10 to meet EU standards. These coarse particles emitted by industry and traffic can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems, lung cancer and premature death. Some 70 per cent of European towns and cities with 250,000 inhabitants or more have reported exceeding the PM10 limits in at least part of their area. EU limit values for sulphur dioxide, PM10 and several other pollutants were agreed in a 1999 directive.

- Major Industrial Accidents: The European Commission decided to send a final written warning to Malta for failing to set up emergency plans for areas surrounding industrial installations where dangerous substances are handled. The plans are a requirement of the Seveso II Directive, the key piece of EU legislation to prevent major industrial accidents and mitigate their effects.

- Energy Efficiency Energy Plan: A formal warning letter will be sent to Malta for failure to notify its national Energy Efficiency Action Plan by June 30, 2007, as required by the 2006 Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive. The Action Plans should present Malta's national strategy on how to achieve a nine per cent energy savings target by the end of 2016 as well as how Malta is going to comply with a number of other provisions of the Directive including to strive for a 20 per cent alternative energy by 2020.

- Waste: A first warning letter will be sent to Malta on the RoHS (restriction of the use of certain hazardous materials in electrical and electronic equipment) directive which aims to reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated by the types of electrical and electronic equipment covered by the WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) Directive. To achieve this, the directive bans the use above certain levels of some heavy metals and brominated flame retardants in new electrical and electronic equipment. The ban applies to all equipment placed on the market as of July 1. 2006. According to the Commission, Malta has not properly transposed the directive into national law.

- Notaries: The European Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion (second stage of legal process) to Malta because it allows only its own citizens to take up and pursue the profession of notary. In the view of the Commission this nationality requirement is contrary to the freedom of establishment provided for in Article 43 of the EC Treaty and cannot be justified by reference to Article 45, which exempts activities involved in the exercise of official authority.

- Bulgaria and Romania: A reasoned opinion will be sent to Malta for its failure to inform the Commission of measures taken to implement Directive 2006/100/EC providing for technical adaptations to the Directives on professional qualifications further to the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union on January 1, 2007. This Directive updates, among others, all the lists of qualifications which benefit from automatic recognition by completing them with the corresponding Bulgarian and Romanian qualifications. The deadline for transposing Directive 2006/100/EC expired on January 1, 2007.