The European Commission has launched legal action against several EU countries for failing to notify it of national laws putting three EU directives into force by recently expired deadlines.
The Commission said on Thursday it has sent “letters of formal notice” — the first step in an EU infringement procedure — to the countries concerned, giving them two months to reply and complete the required measures.
Twenty member states have been contacted over incomplete notification of national rules transposing the EU’s “Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition” directive.
The countries listed are Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden.
The directive is intended to improve the reliability and transparency of environmental claims and sustainability labels, while also requiring better information for shoppers about product durability, repairability and legal guarantee rights.
The deadline for countries to transpose the directive into national law was 27 March 2026.
Nurses, dentists and pharmacists training rules also targeted
Separate infringement procedures were opened against Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Austria and Portugal for not fully notifying measures transposing updated EU rules on minimum training requirements for nurses responsible for general care, dental practitioners and pharmacists, the Commission said.
The changes update the EU framework for recognising professional qualifications and were due to be transposed by 4 March 2026.
A third set of letters was sent to 10 countries for failing to fully notify national measures transposing new worker protection rules covering lead and diisocyanates — chemicals used in industrial processes and some products that can cause serious health effects.
The countries named were Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia, and the transposition deadline was 9 April 2026,.
The Commission said the workers’ protection directive introduces lower occupational and biological limit values for lead and its inorganic compounds, and sets binding occupational exposure limit values for diisocyanates for the first time.
If the member states do not provide a satisfactory response within two months, the Commission may move to the next stage by issuing a “reasoned opinion.”
