Belgium, which has been sentenced twice by the EU Court of Justice this year, is due to pay more than 4 million fine.
Belgium has been sentenced twice this year by the European Union Court of Justice to fines of more than 4 million euros in total, to have delayed transpose European directives into its national legislation. SPF Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday that the country was to pay these sums to the European Commission.
EU member states are required to guarantee the compliance with European legislationwhich includes the transposition of directives. These set an objective and it is up to the Member States to determine in their legislation how to achieve them. They always predict delay And if the latter is not respected, a procedure can be started before the EU Court of Justice.
The convictions are however infrequentthe European Commission preferring Find a solution with the Member State late. Belgium nevertheless received this year of two finesfor a total of more than 4.4 million euros.
In the first stopdating from May 22, Belgium is ordered to pay a lump sum 2.1 million euros For late transposition of the open data directive and the reuse of public sector information. It was to be integrated into national laws for July 17, 2021 but the Brussels-Capital Region, the Walloon Region, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the Federal State have not respected this period.
The second stop dating from August 1 ordered the country to pay a lump sum of 2.35 million euros For having delayed transposing the directive on the balance between the professional and private lives of parents and caregivers. The Federal State, the Walloon Region, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the German-speaking community missed the due date of August 2, 2022.
After the expiration of deadlines, the European Commission sent to Belgium Several formal noticesas the procedure wants, before entering the CJEU. Since then, the directives in question have been transposed so that the country has only been sentenced flat -rate fine and not for penalty. These convictions can no longer be called, said the SPF Foreign Affairs.
This federal public service, which coordinates the transposition of the directives, underlines that the final responsibility returns to competent ministers. “These two convictions are regrettable But we hope they will serve as Alarm signal for all Belgian power levels“, Slides the SPF. “As a coordinating service, SPF Foreign Affairs provided enormous efforts To identify the sensitive points, in particular the distribution of skills, and find solutions both at Belgian and European level ”.
According to the European Commission’s website, 73 offense procedures are hanging against Belgium for poor application of EU law. It may be a late or erroneous transposition of directives, or bad applications of regulations, treaties and binding decisions for all Member States. Belgium is thus located at sixth placewith Hungary, EU countries having the most procedures against them. By taking into account only late transpositions, our country rose to the 4e the place.
The complex structure Belgium certainly plays a role while very often, Several levels of power are involved in the transposition of directives. The procedure thus often lasts longer than in other countries.
