The Belgian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that this year Belgium has been fined a total of 4.45 million euro by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to transpose two EU directives into national law on time. The fines are payable to the European Commission.
Belgium fined over 4 million euro for delays in turning EU directives into national law
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All 27 EU member states are required to ensure that EU directives are transposed into national law on time. Each directive has a deadline. Failure to meet the deadline can result in a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Belgium has been fined twice in recent months.
On 22 May, Belgium was ordered to pay 2.1 million euro in fines for late transposition of the open data and re-use of public sector information directive. The Brussels-Capital Region, the Walloon Region, the Francophone Language Community and the Federal Government had all missed the 17 July 2021 deadline for the deadline’s transposition.
Late implementation
On 1 August, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a second ruling, imposing a fine of 2.35 million euro for the late implementation of the work-life balance directive for parents and carers. The 2 August 2022 deadline for the directive’s implementation had been missed by the Federal Government, the Walloon Region, the Francophone Language Community, and the German Language Community.
In both these cases, the European Commission had issued several formal warnings before taking Belgium to court. As the directives have since been implemented, the fines are now limited to a one-off payment and no daily penalties charges will be payable.
73 infringement procedures
According to figures from the European Commission, Belgium currently faces 73 infringement procedures for failing to correctly apply EU law. These cover late or incorrect transposition of directives, as well as breaches of regulations, treaties and decisions. This places Belgium sixth among EU member states.
Belgium is 4 out the 27 EU member states when it comes to missed deadlines for the transposition of directives. This is at least in part due to Belgium’s complex federal structure, whereby various layers of government often share responsibility for ensuring that EU law is implemented.