Belgium excels at not following EU law

Belgium scores particularly badly when it comes to transposing EU legislation. This is according to a survey recently published by the European Commission. The Commission will now take action to ensure that EU directives are transposed fully and on time.

In the coming days, the European Commission will send a letter of formal notice to member states that have not put their house in order, urging them to get a better overview of the state of national transposition of EU directives. The member states concerned will then have two months to respond to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition.

Belgium can already empty its letterbox, as our country currently does not comply with the following directives.

– Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions that provides more extensive and updated labour rights and offers protection to the 182 million workers in the EU.

– Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2021/1269 clarifying that investment firms should consider sustainability factors and objectives in their product supervision and governance process.

– Delegated Directive (EU) 2021/1270 (the “UCITS Sustainability Directive”) requiring all fund managers to include sustainability risks in their portfolios.

– Directive (EU) 2019/1151 on provisions on the use of digital tools and processes in company law.

– Directive (EU) 2019/1023 establishing a set of rules to prevent early bankruptcy and create a sound environment in which insolvent entrepreneurs can recover.

– Directive (EU) 2019/1158 which aims to ensure equality in labour market participation by encouraging equal sharing of care responsibilities between parents.

– Directive (EU) 2021/971 which amends the annexes to the seed marketing directives to take into account technical and scientific developments regarding the use of biochemical and biomolecular techniques in seed certification.

Belgium will have to step up its efforts in the coming months to formulate all responses thoroughly and in a timely manner.