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Ireland faces EU action over industrial emissions

The European Commission is taking infringement action against Ireland for failing to correctly transpose a directive on industrial emissions into Irish law.

The EU body said that it had sent a reasoned opinion to Ireland setting out what it described as failures to address shortcomings in the transposition of the Industrial Emissions Directive.

The measure lays down rules designed to prevent and reduce harmful industrial emissions into air, water, and land, as well as prevent the generation of waste.

Two-month timeframe

The commission sent a letter of formal notice to Ireland on the issue in February 2022, but it said that Irish legislation had still not correctly transposed certain permitting requirements.

These include compliance with emission-limit values when a derogation was granted from the requirement to respect the emission levels associated with the best available techniques, some technical requirements in annexes to the directive, and certain definitions.

Ireland now has two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Transport measure

Ireland is also one of six countries facing infringement action over missing last year’s 10 August deadline to transpose the TEN-T Directive on cross-border transport projects.

The countries concerned have two take the necessary measures, before facing potential action in the CJEU.

The commission has also sent a formal notice to three countries – including Ireland – about failing to correctly transpose the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive into Irish law.

The EU body says that the current Irish system does not guarantee the adequacy and completeness of the information held in the Beneficial Ownership register of trusts, or the accessibility of its information.