The December infringements package: Commission acts for full, proper and timely implementation of EU law for the benefit of citizens and businesses

To help citizens and businesses benefit fully from the internal market, the European Commission continuously engages with and, if necessary, initiates infringement procedures against Member States which do not respect European law. The European Commission also closes pending cases where the Member State concerned, in cooperation with the Commission, has solved the problem and ensured compliance with EU law, thus rendering a referral to the Court of Justice of the EU unnecessary. This month, as part of its monthly package of infringement decisions, the Commission took a number of decisions (including 4 letters of formal notice accompanied by a press release, 34 reasoned opinions, 9 referrals to the Court of Justice of the EU, and 83 closures). Notably, the Commission has formally requested Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden to fully implement the Deposit Guarantee Schemes‘ Directive – a step towards a fully-fledged Banking Union, and a pre-condition for the future use, by Member States within the Banking Union, of the European Deposit Insurance Scheme proposed by the Commission (see IP/15/6152). With regards to the Common European Asylum System, the Commission has urged Greece, Croatia, and Italy to correctly implement the Eurodac Regulation, and has requested that Greece and Malta communicate on their national measures taken to fully transpose the Asylum Procedures Directive and the Reception Conditions Directive. Finally, the Commission decided to refer 5 Member States to the Court of Justice of the EU in a number of other areas covering environment (Greece and Poland), Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (Austria and Germany), Mobility and Transport (Austria, Germany, Finland, and Poland), and Health and Food Safety – Poland. A summary of the key decisions as well as the contact details of the relevant Spokespersons and the corresponding press releases can be found in the fact sheet. On the general EU infringement procedure, a memo is also available here.