EC opens five new infringement proceedings against Bulgaria

The European Commission’s latest infringements package, published on October 10, showed five new proceedings being launched against Bulgaria, with two existing cases taken to the second stage of the process.

Two of the new infringement cases, where the Commission sent letters of formal notice, were in the security union area – one to flag Bulgaria’s incorrect implementation of certain provisions of the Directive on Attacks against Information Systems, in particular regarding certain offences and the respective penalties.

The other case referred to the agreement between four EU member states, Bulgaria among them, and five Western Balkan countries on the automated exchange of DNA data, dactyloscopic data and vehicle registration. The Commission said that it considered the agreement to be in breach of EU’s “exclusive competence” in the area.

In the area of maritime transport, the EC opened proceedings against Bulgaria for failing to comply with EU law on marine equipment, specifically environmental and safety rules on equipment such as life jackets, sewage cleaning systems and radars, on board EU-flagged ships.

Bulgaria has failed to ensure that marine equipment (on board of Bulgarian flagged vessels) always complies with the requirements of the Directive, and is not conducting market surveillance on an adequate scale, the Commission said.

Bulgaria was also one of five countries that failed to comply with the directive on minimum safety measures relating to the infrastructure and operation of tunnels.

Finally, the fifth new infringement proceedings referred to Bulgaria’s failure to report the levels of recycling achieved under the directive on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators.

In two other existing cases, the Commission pushed infringement proceedings to the second stage, that of reasoned opinions – in the first, Bulgaria was urged comply with the reporting obligations on the environmental status of marine waters under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and in the second, to fully transpose the Trade Mark Directive.

(European Commission headquarters Berlaymont building. Photo: JLogan)

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