European Commission sends three infringement cases against Bulgaria to European Court of Justice
The European Commission said on July 25 that it has decided to refer Bulgaria to the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) in three ongoing infringement proceedings as part of its latest infringements package.
In the first case, the Commission said that Bulgaria failed to correctly transpose EU rules on the right to information in criminal proceedings, set out in Directive 2012/13/EU, which had a transposition deadline of June 2014.
Despite first being notified of the issue in September 2021, Bulgaria has still not fully addressed the Commission’s concerns such as the incorrect transposition of the scope of the directive for persons who are de facto suspected of having committed a criminal offence.
In the second case, Bulgaria was being referred to the ECJ for limiting the maximum duration of the provision of temporary cross-border social services, in violation of the Services Directive 2006/123/EC and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The EC said in a statement that member states were not allowed to set a maximum duration for temporary services such as consulting or advocacy services, community work, therapy and rehabilitation, skills training and care services.
However, Bulgaria was in violation of EU rules by legally limiting such services to a period of six months per year, the Commission said.
In the third case, the Commission said that it was referring Bulgaria to the ECJ for failing to notify the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/882, also known as the European Accessibility Act, despite being required to do so by June 2022.
The EC noted that Bulgaria had announced the intention to table a draft bill in its National Assembly in December 2023, but was yet to submit a formal notification of doing so.
This takes the total of infringement cases against Bulgaria referred by the European Commission to the European Court of Justiceso far this year to four, having also made a referral to ECJ for Bulgaria’s failure to fully finalise the revision of river basin management plans in February. It also referred seven cases to the ECJ in 2023, on issues ranging from victims rights and biodiversity to renewable energy rules and open data use.
As part of its July infringements package, the Commission said that it opened four new infringement cases against Bulgaria for failing to fully transpose into national law the provisions of the revised EU Emissions Trading System Directive; failing to meet waste collection and recycling targets, in breach of the Waste Framework Directive; failing to transpose completely the amendments to the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive; and failing to correctly apply certain provisions of the Single European Sky performance and charging scheme for air navigation services.
Additionally, the Commission said that it was advancing two existing cases to the second stage of infringement proceedings by sending a reasoned opinion. The first of those cases concerns Bulgaria’s failure to correctly transpose EU rules set out in the Proportionality Test Directive (EU) 2018/958 on access to, or pursuit of, regulated professions. The second case was triggered by Bulgaria incomplete transposition of the Directive on credit servicers and credit purchasers.
Should Bulgaria fail to address the Commission’s concerns laid out in the reasoned opinions in the next two months, the EC can choose to refer those cases to the ECJ.
(European Commission headquarters Berlaymont building. Photo: JLogan)
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