The European Commission decided on Thursday to initiate an infringement procedure by sending official letters of formal notice to Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Austria in order to remedy the deficiencies in the transposition of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, as amended by the Directive (EU) 2018/851/EU, according to a press release from the Community Executive.

The amended directive establishes legally binding objectives for the recycling and preparation for reuse of municipal waste. It also calls on member states to improve their waste management systems and resource efficiency. The deadline for Member States to transpose Directive (EU) 2018/851 into their national legislation expired on July 5, 2020. The Member States in question have not transposed it correctly to date, the European Commission stated.

In the case of Romania, the legislative deficiencies are related to the termination of the status of waste, the extended responsibility of the producer, the derogation from the sharing of financial responsibility and the measures established to prevent the generation of waste.

Therefore, the European Commission has decided to send official letters of formal notice to the Member States concerned, who have two months to respond and remedy the identified deficiencies. In the absence of a satisfactory answer, the European Commission could decide to issue a reasoned opinion.