site.btaEuropean Commission Proceeds with Two Infringement Procedures against Bulgaria

The European Commission Wednesday said that it proceeds with the next step in two infringement procedures against Bulgaria. The country has two months to respond and take the necessary measures, otherwise the Commission will refer Bulgaria to the Court of Justice of the EU.

Under the first infringement procedure, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Bulgaria as well as Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Sweden urging them to transpose into national law EU rules accelerating permitting procedures for renewable energy projects set out in Directive (EU) 2023/2413. This Directive introduces rules that simplify and shorten permitting procedures both for renewable energy projects and for the infrastructure projects which are necessary to integrate the additional capacity into the electricity system. The Directive also introduces the presumption that renewable energy projects, storage and the related grid infrastructure are of overriding public interest. The deadline to transpose these provisions into national law was July 1, 2024. 

In September 2024, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Bulgaria. After having examined the reply, the Commission decided to issue a reasoned opinion to Bulgaria for failing to provide sufficiently clear and precise information on how its transposition measures transpose each of the Directive's provisions.

Under the second infringement procedure, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Bulgaria as well as Spain, Austria, Portugal, and Slovakia for failing to transpose the amendments to the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (Directive 2014/59/EU, BRRD), which concern the prudential treatment of global systemically important institutions and the loss absorbing and recapitalisation capacity of banking groups. The amendments are important for ensuring full alignment in the EU with the Financial Stability Board's standards on Total Loss Absorbing Capacity for global systemically important institutions. In the absence of transposition of these technical measures, it will not be possible to achieve the necessary level of harmonisation in the EU's framework for the banking sector.