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| Europe |
| EU |
| 2005-07-25 |
| They have no coastline; no international mariners ply their non-existent territorial waters. You might think that would excuse landlocked Hungary and Slovakia from implementing European Union legislation on safety at sea, but that would be to underestimate Brussels bureaucracy. I would never underestimate Brussels bureaucracy The two countries are being threatened with expensive legal action in the European Court of Justice for failing to bring in Europe's maritime laws. Slovakia last week received two EC "yellow cards" for ignoring the laws. Known in EU-speak as "reasoned opinions", they are final warnings issued to national governments before court action is taken. Kind of like My HOA. "The commission has decided to send a double reasoned opinion to Slovakia on account of its failure to transpose into national law a number of directives on maritime safety, including that of passenger ships and the prevention of pollution from ships," the EC said. Oh, a double reasoned opinion. That's double-plus ungood. While admitting that Slovakia was "not a maritime state" the commission sought to justify its "As far as passenger ships are concerned, you're not actually allowed to register them in Slovakia," said Marta Domokova, a spokesman. Resignedly, she added: "We have no coastline but it looks as if we are going to have to implement all these laws anyway." You can't fight City Hall. The Hungarian government was chastised for failing to respect EU laws on the "availability of port facilities for ship-generated waste." This lack of respect may seem excusable given that Hungary has no visiting ships, no ports and therefore no need for facilities in which to store waste. This, the commission said, was not the point. No, the point is on top of their heads. "Though it has no maritime ports, Hungary has a maritime register," the commission explained. "Transposition of the directive by Hungary is therefore needed in view of the obligations on masters of ships." While it may be tempting for the countries to ignore the yellow cards, in the hope that the commission will go away, they would be best advised not to. The European Court of Justice has the right to impose fines on national governments if EU law is not upheld. Recently, France was fined €20 million (£13.9 million) for letting its fishermen catch fish that were too small. Until France complies with the EU law, it will face a further fine of almost €60 million (£41.7 million) every six months. Of course, you could just ignore the fine, too. Or take it out of your |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #6 Thatn not idocy that's capt von trapp |
| Posted by: half 2005-07-25 18:46 |
| #5 Ah, Europe. Idiocy is thy name. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-07-25 12:27 |
| #4 What happens if they get another "yellow card"? Do 3 yellows equal a red? Will Hungary be benched for the next quarter? Will Nathan tell Sally about Bernice? Tune in tomorrow to "All Our Idiots"... |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-07-25 10:49 |
| #3 I don't see a problem. We all have to make a living. |
| Posted by: Georg 2005-07-25 07:48 |
| #2 Heh, TGA. Point illustrated, eviscerated, deep fried, and served up piping hot, lol! Yellow cards? Lol, there's no end to the pointless amusements... Methinks the collective EU brain is as smooooooth as a cue ball. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-07-25 01:43 |
| #1 Well the city of Berlin faced the same problem when it was forced to implement EU laws about "mountain cable cars and ski lifts". Well Berlin has no mountains (highest elevation 91 m) and therefore wise city officials have never thought of building cable cars and ski lifts (which makes sense for a change). But if they were ever going to have mountains in the future, they have all the laws for them in place already and could build those cable cars without running foul of the EU. The law did cost them a 100000 Euros or so but that's not the point now isn't it? |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-07-25 01:37 |