summary of the case
| status: | closed by Ministerial Council Decision / not complied after Art.91 MC Decision |
|---|---|
| registered: | ex officio 05.09.2018 |
Directive 2001/80/EC entered into force in the Energy Community on 31 December 2017, with regard to existing plants. Furthermore, Decision 2013/06/MC-EnC incorporated Chapter III and Annex V of Directive 2010/75/EU with regard to new plants as of 1 January 2018. Both directives require the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter) into the air from large combustion plants equal to or greater than a rated thermal input of 50 MW. These provisions are key to limit air pollution and it is expected that the implementation of these directives would result in major health and environmental benefits in the Contracting Parties. Contracting Parties were to align their national legislation with the provisions of these Directive by the above deadlines.
On 17 November 2014, the Secretariat published Policy Guidelines on the definition of “new” and “existing” plant in the context of Decision 2013/06/MC-EnC of the Ministerial Council. Thereby, the Secretariat specified that combustion plants that have been granted a permit before 1 January 2018, or the operators of which have submitted a complete application for a permit before that date (provided that such plants are put into operation no later than 1 January 2019), should be considered as existing plants under Article 1(2) of Decision 2013/06/MC-EnC. All other plants shall be considered as new plants under Article 1(2) of Decision 2013/06/MC-EnC.
In the framework of a EU4Energy project, the Secretariat also provided assistance to the Republic of Moldova in developing draft legislation in this field, a project that was finalised in December 2017. The draft legislation was however not adopted to date.
Therefore, the Secretariat preliminarily found that by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2001/80/EC and Chapter III, Annex V and Article 72(3)-(4) of Directive of Directive 2010/75/EU by not transposing the latter provisions into national law and by not implementing those provisions, the Republic of Moldova fails to comply with Articles 12 and 16 of the Energy Community Treaty read in conjunction with Article 1(2) of Decision 2013/06/MC-EnC as well as with the above provisions of the directives.