The EU Commission’s Infringement Procedures in the Water Sector

Abstract

Under Article 17 teu, the EU Commission has to ensure that EU law is implemented by the Member States. For a long time, the European Commission kept its activities with regard to the implementation of Article 258 tfeu rather confidential. Since about ten years, the Commission changed its policy. The Commission installed a database, where it lists all decisions under Article 258 tfeu which it adopted. The present contribution will, on the basis of that database, the different implementation reviews, other Commission publications and the information of the European Environment Agency on the state of the EU environment, retrace the state of affairs with regard to the monitoring, by the Commission, of the implementation of Union legislation in the water sector. This review will show whether the database is up-to-date and it will also provide data to discuss the infringment practice of the Commission in the field of water protection.