summary of the case
| status: | closed by Ministerial Council Decision / complied after Art.92 MC Decision |
|---|---|
| registered: | ex officio 2013 |
Directive 1999/32/EC aims to reduce emissions of SO2, a substance harmful to human health and the environment, resulting from combustion of heavy fuel oils and gas oils. The Directive sets maximum thresholds for the sulphur content in these fuels of 1.00% and 0.10% respectively, and requires frequent sampling and analysis in each Contracting Parties. Directive 1999/32/EC is part of the Energy Community environmental acquis communautaire. The deadline for the implementation of the Directive in the Contracting Parties expired at the end of 2011 and upon the assessment of the domestic legal situation, the Secretariat decided to open dispute settlement procedures against the Contracting Parties the domestic legislation of which was not in line with Energy Community law.
The case against Serbia was initiated by the Secretariat for the lack of national provisions transposing the 1.00% threshold for heavy fuel oil, the 0.10% threshold for gas oil and the lack of national provisions applying the standards for sampling and analysis of fuels covered by the scope of the Directive. The two latter breaches were rectified by Serbia during the procedure and the Secretariat discontinued the case in those respects.
On 14 October 2016, the Ministerial Council decided on the failure by Serbia to comply with its obligations its obligations under Article 3(1) of Directive 1999/32/EC in conjunction with Article 16 of the Treaty. With the adoption of Decision 2016/04/MC-EnC, the procedure under Article 91 of the Treaty in Case ECS-04/13 is closed. On 13 October 2017, the Secretariat initiated Case ECS-04/13S by submitting a Reasoned Request to the Ministerial Council under Article 92 of the Treaty.