EU infringement proceedings against Cyprus for waste, banking failures

The European Commission has begun infringement proceedings against Cyprus for failing to meet waste collection and recycling targets, it announced on Thursday.

Infringement proceedings have also been opened against Cyprus for failing to transpose amendments to the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive into national law.

Where waste collection is concerned, proceedings began against the 27 member states of the EU.

These are Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, and Sweden for failing to meet the 50 per cent target for 2020 of preparing for reuse and recycling of municipal waste (such as paper, metal, plastic and glass). 

As for the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, it concerns “the prudential treatment of global systemically important institutions and the loss absorbing and recapitalisation capacity of banking groups.”

A commission statement said the changes are necessary for properly reflecting the exposure of EU G-SIIs to their subsidiaries located in third countries and for further improving the ability of the largest EU banking groups to withstand financial shocks.

“In the absence of transposition of these technical but important measures, it will not be possible to achieve the necessary level of harmonisation in the EU’s unified framework for the banking sector.”

As such, the commission sent a letter of formal notice to Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia which now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

The commission also sent a reasoned opinion to Cyprus over failing to complete the transposition into national law of the Directive on credit servicers and purchasers.

It issued a reasoned opinion to Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Finland, which now have two months to reply and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The main objective ofDirective 2021/2167 is to enable credit servicers and credit purchasers to operate on European Union wide scale, whilst firmly safeguarding borrowers’ rights.

The directive requires, for example, that credit purchasers and credit servicers act in good faith, fairly and professionally with borrowers and communicate with them in a way that does not constitute harassment, coercion or undue influence.