EU states in the dock over waste oils, GMOs

EU states in the dock over waste oils, GMOs Austria and Portugal have joined a long list of EU states condemned by the European court of justice for failing to prioritise the recycling or "regeneration" of waste oils under a 1975 directive. The rulings' impact could be negligible, however, since the European Commission - which brought the cases - has now indicated that it wants to scrap the very requirement breached by the two member states (ED 22/10/04). Separately, the court condemned Greece for failing to transpose the 2001 "deliberate release" directive on use of genetically modified organisms in the environment. Greece is at least the fourth EU state to be rapped over this directive, the European Commission having referred fully 11 of the then EU-15 to the court in mid-2003 (ED 5/07/03). Meanwhile, a court advisor criticised Belgian procedures enabling tacit rejection by authorities of environmental information requests. The precise questions dealt with relate to a national dispute and were referred by a Belgian court. Follow-up: European court of justice, tel: +352 43031, plus judgements in cases involving Austria (C-15/03), Portugal (C-92/03) and Greece (C-416/03), and advocate general's opinion on Belgium (C-186/04). from ENDS Environment Daily

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