May 17 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday it has referred Romania to the Court of Justice of the EU for having breached agreed EU rules on air pollution limits.
Alongside Romania, the Commission referred France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom to court on the same issue, it said in its May package of infringement decisions.
The countries had failed to respect agreed air quality limit values and did not take appropriate measures to keep exceedance periods as short as possible, the Commission noted.
At the same time, the Commission decided to close infringement proceedings against Romania and two other EU member states in the area of parallel trade of medicines for human use.
"After careful assessment, the Commission has concluded on the need to look for other ways than infringements to adequately solve this complex situation in order to swiftly and efficiently deal with an issue that might have negative impact on the health of European citizens."
Also on Thursday, the Commission said it has sent a letter of formal notice to Romania for failing to ensure the full and immediate refund of registration taxes on second-hand vehicles purchased from other member states. This infringes EU law because the Romanian rules on the repayment of taxes do not fulfill the principles of sincere cooperation, equivalence and effectiveness. If Romania does not act within the next two months, the Commission may send a reasoned opinion to the Romanian authorities.
Furthermore, the Commission said it has decided to send letters of formal notice to Romania and other seven member states for failing to correctly transpose certain requirements of the Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Directive. The concerned member states now have two months to reply to the arguments raised by the Commission.