January infringements package: key decisions

January infringements package: key decisions

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... HomePress corner January infringements package: key decisions

Available languages: българскиčeštinadanskDeutscheestiελληνικάEnglishespañolfrançaisGaeilgehrvatskiitalianolatviešulietuviųmagyarMaltiNederlandspolskiportuguêsromânăslovenčinaslovenščinasuomisvenska Infringement decisions Jan 30, 2026 Brussels 49 min read

January infringements package: key decisions

Overview by policy area

In its regular package of infringement decisions, the European Commission takes legal action against Member States that fail to comply with their obligations under EU law. These decisions, covering various EU policy areas, aim to ensure the proper application of EU law for the benefit of citizens and businesses. The key decisions taken by the Commission are presented below and grouped by policy area. The Commission is also closing 72 cases where the issues with the Member States concerned have been solved. In these cases, the Commission does not have to pursue the infringement procedure further.

At the same time the Commission is also taking action against several EU Member States that have failed to notify measures they have adopted to transpose EU directives into their national laws. The deadline to transpose these ten directives has expired recently. The Commission is sending a letter of formal notice to these Member States, giving them two months to reply and complete the transposition of the directives. If they fail to do so, the Commission may pass to a next step and issue a reasoned opinion. The Commission is urging them to take immediate action to bring their laws in line with EU requirements.

The Commission's enforcement activities and Member States' compliance with EU law can be followed through interactive maps and customisable graphs. For more details on the history of a case or to access the full database of infringement decisions, the infringement decisions' register is open for consultation. And more information on the EU infringement procedure can be found in the following Q&A.

1. Environment

(For more information: Anna-Kaisa Itkonen – Tel.: +32 2 295 75 01; Maëlys Dreux – Tel.: +32 229 54673)

Letters of formal notice

Commission calls on Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg to ensure compliance with the Water Framework Directive

The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending letters of formal notice to Denmark (INFR(2025)2209), Italy (INFR(2025)2207) and Luxembourg (INFR(2025)2216) for failing to correctly transpose the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC), including the obligation to carry out periodic reviews of water permits. Full implementation of EU water quality standards is key to protecting human health and the environment. The Directive requires Member States to establish a programme of measures for each river basin district to ensure good status of European water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. Each programme must include measures to control different types of pressures affecting water bodies, such as water abstraction, point source discharges, and diffuse pollution sources. Member States are required to periodically review and update these control measures, including any permits granted, to determine whether they still achieve their objectives and, if necessary, update them. In Denmark, water abstraction permits are not reviewed, although their validity period can be up to 30 years long. This is not in line with the objectives of the Directive. Furthermore, Danish legislation exempts riverbank owners from the requirement to obtain a water abstraction permit for providing river water to their cattle. Finally, 215 water supply plants have no valid abstraction authorisations. In Italy, national legislation does not guarantee the registration of every water abstraction or impoundment permit, such as impounding water by building a dam. In addition, concessions are not subject to any periodic review although the validity periods can be 30 or 40 years. This is not in line with the objectives of the Directive. Luxembourg incorrectly transposed the obligation to periodically review water abstraction permits. In Luxembourg, permits for the abstraction of groundwater granted from 2015 onwards are valid for seven years. However, those that were granted before 2015 remain valid indefinitely and there is no obligation to review them periodically with a view to achieving the objectives of the Directive. There is also no periodic review of permits of unlimited duration for abstraction of surface water and discharge into such waters. The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg, which now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

Commission calls on Spain and Romania to submit their implementation reports under the Habitats and Birds Directives

The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending letters of formal notice to Spain (INFR(2025)2214) and Romania (INFR(2025)2215) for failing to comply with their reporting obligations under the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC) and Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC). The Habitats and Birds Directives require Member States to submit implementation reports to the Commission every six years in an agreed format. The reports required provide an assessment of the conservation status of the habitats and species covered by the Habitats Directive, as well as the wild bird species, based on the status and trends of populations and habitats, as well as the main pressures and threats affecting them. The reports also include information on the conservation measures taken for them and the contribution of the Natura 2000 network to the conservation objectives laid out in the Directives. Spain did not submit the implementation report under the Habitats Directive, and Romania did not submit the report under the Birds Directive, for the 2019-2024 cycle. The deadline for this reporting cycle was 31 July 2025. The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to Spain and Romania, which now have two months to respond and address the shortcoming raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

Commission calls on Italy to update its national air pollution control programmes to reduce the emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants

The European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Italy (INFR(2025)2198) for failing to update its national air pollution control programme under the Directive on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (NEC Directive) (Directive (EU) 2016/2284). The NEC Directive sets national emission reduction commitments for several air pollutants to be achieved by each Member State each year between 2020 and 2029, with more ambitious reductions for 2030 onwards. It also requires Member States to adopt national air pollution control programmes (NAPCPs) setting out measures to meet those commitments. The NEC Directive requires Member States to update their NAPCPs at least every four years. These updates show the progress made by Member States in implementing the programme and how they keep on track to meet their commitments. This contributes to reducing emissions of air pollutants, thus improving air quality. Despite several reminders, Italy has to date not submitted the required updated NAPCP to the Commission. The Commission is therefore sending a letter of formal notice to Italy, which now has two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

Commission calls on Latvia to correctly transpose the Waste Framework Directive

The European Commission decided to issue a letter of formal notice to Latvia (INFR(2025)2205) for failing to correctly transpose the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC as amended by Directive 2018/851/EU), which aims to prevent or reduce the generation of waste. This is crucial for the EU's competitiveness and the transition to a circular economy. The amended Directive sets binding targets for recycling and preparing municipal waste for reuse. It also introduces requirements for Member States to improve their waste management systems and the efficiency of resource use. The deadline for Member States to transpose the amended Directive into their national legislation was 5 July 2020. Latvia has failed to correctly transpose requirements related to waste recovery, the ban on mixing of hazardous waste, the rules for bio-waste, the content of the waste management plans, and the extended producer responsibility scheme. The Commission is therefore sending a letter of formal notice to Latvia, which has two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to send a reasoned opinion.

Reasoned opinions

Commission calls on Czechia to comply with the Landfill Directive and improve its treatment of waste

Today, the European Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion to Czechia (INFR(2022)2017) for failing to correctly apply the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/850) and the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC as amended by Directive(EU)2018/851). The Landfill Directive sets standards for landfills to prevent adverse effects on human health, water, soil and air. Under this Directive, Member States must take measures to ensure that only waste that has been subject to treatment is landfilled. Under the Waste Framework Directive, Member States must recover and dispose of waste in a manner that does not endanger human health and the environment. The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Czechia in April 2022. However, the identified shortcomings have not yet been remedied. Firstly, Czechia has not transposed correctly the obligation to pre-treat waste before landfilling. Indeed, the Czech legislation allows waste to be landfilled if there is a separate collection system in place, while the Directive requires that only waste that has been subject to treatment is landfilled. Furthermore, recyclables and biodegradable waste reach landfill sites where the disposed waste is not treated with an adequate selection of different fractions of waste; also, the organic fraction of disposed waste is not stabilised before being landfilled. This concerns all 118 landfills of municipal waste currently in operation in Czechia. The Commission notes that excessive reliance on solutions to increase the capacity to treat mixed waste, such as mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) or incineration capacity, would be counterproductive. Czechia has not yet taken all the planned measures to support separate collection of municipal waste, such as increase of landfilling fees and an introduction of the ‘pay as you throw' principle. The Commission has also identified several challenges and opportunities in the 2023 Early warning report. Therefore, the Commission decided to issue a reasoned opinion to Czechia, which now has two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Commission calls on Belgium to take the necessary steps to protect and restore its Natura 2000 sites

Today, the European Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion to Belgium (INFR(2015)2007) for failing to protect habitats and species of EU interest. Under the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC) and Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC), Member States agreed, as a key requirement under those Directives, to develop a coherent Natura 2000 network by proposing adequate sites of Community importance to the Commission. After a site has been endorsed by the Commission, the Member State has six years to designate it as a special area of conservation (SAC) and to establish the necessary conservation objectives and measures, which should contribute to maintaining or restoring the protected species and habitats to a favourable conservation status. On 27 March 2015, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Belgium for failing to designate several sites as SAC in the Brussels capital and Walloon regions, as well as two marine sites under federal responsibility. The Commission also found that Belgium failed to set site-specific conservation objectives for those sites. Since then, Belgium has made significant progress by designating all sites as SAC, setting general conservation objectives and adopting some of the required measures. However, while the Walloon region has set conservation objectives and measures aimed at preventing deterioration, it has not so far set any site-specific objectives and measures aimed at restoring species and habitats. As regards the two Belgian marine SACs (Vlaamse Banken and Vlakte van de Raan), conservation measures concerning fishing activities, notably bottom trawling, are still not adopted. Therefore, the Commission decided to issue a reasoned opinion to Belgium, which now has two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Referral to the Court of Justice

Commission decides to refer Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union over failure to close and rehabilitate landfills

Today, the European Commission decided to refer Romania (INFR(2020)2276) to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to comply with its obligations on the landfill of waste under the Treaty of Accession for Romania and the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/850). The transitional derogation granted under the Accession Treaty allowed certain landfills to operate until 16 July 2017, after which all non-compliant landfills were to be closed and rehabilitated. Romania has reported that 92 landfil