OREANDA-NEWS. May 29, 2015. The European Commission is referring Romania to the EU Court of Justice over its failure to transpose revised EU legislation on end-of-life vehicles into domestic law.

The End-of-Life Vehicles Directive aims to make vehicle dismantling and recycling more environmentally friendly, prohibiting the use of certain hazardous substances in vehicles put on the market after 1 July 2003. The revised legislation prolongs one exemption from this prohibition, which concerns the use of lead in certain vehicle components.

Member States had to adopt the laws necessary to comply with this Directive by 22 August 2013. After missing that deadline, Romania has received a letter of formal notice on 27 September 2013, followed by a reasoned opinion on 11 July 2014. Despite Romania's efforts, more than a year and a half after the deadline, the Directive is still not transposed into domestic legislation. The Commission has therefore decided to refer Romania to the EU Court of Justice.

Background

The End-of-Life Vehicles Directive is one strand of a wide-ranging effort to turn Europe into a circular economy where waste is systematically recovered, re-used or recycled. More particularly, the legislation is intended to reduce the amount of waste produced from vehicles when they are scrapped, to limit the use of hazardous substances (in particular lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium) in manufacturing, and to increase the quantity of recycled material used in vehicle manufacture. It also sets ambitious recovery and recycling targets: by 1 January 2015 at the latest, for all end-of life vehicles, re-use and recovery should be at least 95 % by average weight per vehicle and year.