Iceland must comply with the judgment of the EFTA Court and fulfil its obligations regarding reporting formalities for ships arriving and departing from EEA ports. This is the conclusion of a reasoned opinion sent to Iceland by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) today.
Iceland has failed to implement Directive 2010/65, which aims at simplifying and harmonising the administrative procedures applied to maritime transport by making the electronic transmission of information standard and by rationalising reporting formalities.
As Iceland should have implemented the Directive by 1 May 2014, ESA brought the matter before the EFTA Court. In December 2015 the Court found that Iceland had failed to fulfil its obligations by not implementing Directive 2010/65 on time.
More than 9 months have now passed since the EFTA Court delivered its judgment, and Iceland has still not adopted the necessary measures to comply with the ruling. Thus, ESA has sent a reasoned opinion to Iceland.
Delivering a reasoned opinion is the second stage in infringement proceedings. ESA may decide to bring the matter before the EFTA Court again if Iceland fails to take satisfactory measures within two months of receiving the reasoned opinion.