Commission takes action to ensure complete and timely transposition of EU directives

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The Commission adopted a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose EU directives into national law. The Commission is sending a letter of formal notice to those Member States who have failed to notify national measures transposing directives, whose transposition deadline expired recently. In this case, there are 20 Member States who have not yet notified full transposition measures for two EU directives in the field of occupational health and safety and transport. Member States concerned now have two months to reply to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition, or the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

Protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens, mutagens or reprotoxic substances at work

In March 2022, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2022/431, broadening the scope of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive to include reprotoxic substances, establish workplace exposure limits for acrylonitrile and nickel compounds and lower the limits for benzene. About 80,000 people in the EU lose their lives every year due to exposure to carcinogens at the place of work. The new rules mark a major step forward to better protect millions of workers in the EU exposed to these substances. This also contributes to advancing the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. To implement the new rules, Member States must incorporate them into national law. The deadline for the transposition of this Directive was 5 April 2024. However, 11 Member States (Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Austria and Slovakia) have yet to fully transpose the revised Directive into national law and notify its measures to the Commission.

Infrastructure charges contributing to financing the maintenance and development of Europe’s road infrastructure network

Adopted originally in 1999, the Directive 1999/62/EC (Eurovignette) sets common rules on distance-based charges (tolls) and time-based user charges (vignettes) for the use of road infrastructure. These rules stipulate that the cost of constructing, operating, and maintaining infrastructure can be recovered through tolls and vignettes. The amending Directive (EU) 2022/362 extended the rules to include passenger cars and small heavy-duty vehicles. The Directive also mandates the internalisation of the external costs linked to air pollution and introduced a new system, requiring Member States to impose payments based on the CO2 emissions of heavy-duty vehicles. This measure contributes to decarbonising road freight transport by encouraging the deployment of heavy-duty vehicles with lower CO2 emissions. 16 Member States – Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia – have not communicated full transposition into national law of the Directive by the deadline of 25 March 2024.