Financiarul

The European Affairs Department (DAE) announced in a press release on Thursday evening that the Romanian authorities are expecting from the European Commission a reasoned opinion related to breaching the European Union laws regarding the environmental impact assessments, a case of infringement related to which the EU Executive announced the same day it had sent Romania a final warning.

‘On October 9, 2009, the European Commission sent Romania a letter drawing attention on the application of provisions of Directives 85/337/EEC and 2008/1/EC and 96/82/EC (letter of formal notice). Basically, the letter made reference to the illegal construction of a formaldehyde production plant with a capacity of 60,000 tons per year. After two months on December 9, 2009, the Romanian authorities sent their answer related to the letter of formal notice to the Permanent Representative Office of Romania to the European Union, in order to send it further to the European Commission.

On March 18, 2010, the European Commission decided to send Romania a reasoned opinion on this matter, thus triggering the last stage of the pre-litigation procedure of actions for failure to fulfill the obligations stipulated under the community legislation. We want to add that that the official text of the reasoned opinion, including the detailed European Commission’s substantiations, has not been communicated to Romania yet. The Bucharest authorities will communicate their answer to the reasoned opinion within the deadline established by the European Community lawmakers.

At present, the Romanian authorities are waiting to receive the reasoned opinion from the European Community lawmakers in order to be able to analyze the Commission’s substantiations and to formulate their own opinion about the matter,’ the DAE press release informs.

The action for failure to fulfill the obligations is regulated by Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (former Article 226 of the Treaty establishing the European Community) and starts with a pre-litigation (administrative) stage, implying a dialogue between the European Commission and the Member State. Firstly, the European Commission sends the respective state a letter of formal notice and then a reasoned opinion if it considers that the EU law infringement action continues.

If the respective Member State does not comply with the reasoned opinion within the deadline the European Commission established, this can result in a summons to the European Court of Justice. The litigation stage of actions for failure to fulfill obligations includes two phases, a written one and one of pleas.