The European Commission decided to refer Croatia, Hungary and Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union with a request to impose financial sanctions in accordance with Article 260(3) TFEU for failing to transpose the EU's Renewable Energy Directive into national legislation.
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The Commission is hereby taking legal steps to ensure the development of renewable energy across the EU and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy dependency and high prices.
Member States were required to transpose the Directive by 30 June 2021.
The Commission has been providing continuous support to the Member States to transpose the rules, but Croatia, Hungary and Portugal have so far failed to notify appropriately where they have transposed each provision of the Directive in their national legislation.
In July 2021, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to all Member States. In May 2022, after assessing the transposition measures notified by these three Member States, the Commission issued reasoned opinions urging them to comply with the obligation to indicate in a sufficiently clear and precise manner all the national measures by which they considered the Directive transposed.
To date Croatia, Hungary and Portugal are the only three Member States who have failed to notify any correlation table or explanatory document specifying where they have transposed each provision of the Directive.
Therefore, the Commission is referring these Member States to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Renewable energy is a key element of the European Green Deal as well as a central pillar of the REPowerEU plan. When it comes to the enforcement of the revised Renewable Energy Directive, the Commission has so far initiated infringement procedures against all 27 Member States for failure to notify complete transposition measures of the Directive by the deadline of 30 June 2021. ■
An upper level high pressure system is expected to continue aiding well above average and potentially dangerous temperatures throughout the West into the first full weekend of September.