July 22 (SeeNews) - The European Commission is referring Romania to the Court of Justice of the EU over its failure to transpose the bloc's rules on a single European railway area and is proposing a daily fine of 29,091 euro ($32,077), it said on Friday.
Romania should have transposed the EU rules on a single European railway area by June 15, 2015, the Commission said in a press release.
The EU Directive 2012/34 aims at strengthening the role of national rail regulatory bodies, in particular as regards their competence for rail facilities, such as terminals and stations. It also contains requirements for financial transparency so that railway undertakings and infrastructure managers keep and publish separate accounts and control financial flows, it added.
If the Court of Justice of the EU confirms the Commission's view, the daily penalty would have to be paid from the date of the judgement or a later date set by the Court until the transposition is complete. The final amount of the daily penalty will be decided by the Court, but cannot exceed the Commission's proposal.
Also on Friday, the Commission said that Romania and seven other member states have two months to notify it of the full transposition of the Directive on the return of unlawfully removed cultural good or else they may be refered to the Court of Justice of the EU.
In November, the Commission referred Romania to the Court of Justice of the EU over its failure to transpose EU rules on sulphur and proposed a daily fine of 38,042 euro.
($=0.9069 euro)