site.btaEuropean Commission Adopts Decisions Concerning Bulgaria

Brussels, December 7 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The European Commission decided on Thursday to refer Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Romania and Spain to the Court of Justice of the EU for failure to notify complete transposition of EU rules on collective management of copyright and related rights, and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use into national law as foreseen by the Collective Rights Management Directive (Directive 2014/26/EU).

The Commission said it is calling on the Court to impose financial penalties on those four member states. The penalty proposed for Bulgaria is 19,121.60 euro per day. The infringement proceedings were opened against those countries in May 2016. To date, these member states have not yet notified the Commission of taking the necessary steps to transpose the Directive into national law.

The Collective Rights Management Directive aims at improving the way all collective management organizations are managed by establishing common governance, transparency and financial management standards. It also sets common standards for the multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses in the internal market.

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The European Commission decided to refer Bulgaria, Finland and Greece to the Court of Justice of the EU for not notifying or partially notifying their measures transposing EU rules establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning (Directive 2014/89/EU).

Member states had to transpose the Directive into national law by September 18, 2016. The Commission will call on the Court to impose financial penalties on the three countries from the day of the judgement until this Directive is fully enacted and in force in national law. The daily penalty proposed for Bulgaria is 14,089.60 euro.

The infringement proceedings were opened against Bulgaria, Finland and Greece in November 2016 and reasoned opinions were sent in these proceedings in July 2017. Bulgaria and Greece have not notified the Commission on the adoption of the measures necessary to transpose the Directive.

Competition for maritime space - for renewable energy equipment, shipping, fisheries, aquaculture and other uses - has highlighted the need to manage EU waters jointly and more coherently, the Commission noted.

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The European Commission urged Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania to transpose the '4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive' (Directive (EU) 2015/849) in their national legislation.

The new EU rules will strengthen the existing anti-money laundering requirements and improve the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. All member states had to transpose this Directive by June 26, 2017. The eight member states have not notified any transposition measures and the draft laws are still in their national legislative process. Therefore, after giving these eight countries the opportunity to submit their observations in reply to its letters of formal notice sent in July 2017, the Commission is now urging these countries to take the necessary measures to fully comply with the Directive.

If these member states fail to bring their national legislation into line with EU law within the next two months, the Commission may decide to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the EU.

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The European Commission welcomed the transposition of new measures on the automatic exchange of tax rulings between EU tax authorities (Council Directive (EU) 2015/2376) into the national legislation of Bulgaria, Cyprus and Portugal.