21/07/2022 07:20
The European Commission has sent two letters of formal notice to Cyprus for not having notified the full transposition of two EU directives into national legislation, one for the accessibility to persons with disabilities to services (for a which a total of 26 member states have received letters) and one on the provision of information regarding investments (for a which a total of 24 member states have received letters).
The Commission has adopted this package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose EU directives into national law (“non-communication infringements”) for which the deadline expired recently.
Member States concerned now have two months to reply to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition, or the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion, the second stage in the process. The last stage is the potential referral of the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.
The first directive is the European Accessibility Act which requires that some products and services, such as public transport, banking and online shops to be accessible for persons with disabilities.
Businesses selling products and services covered by the Directive must ensure that they comply with a set of common EU accessibility requirements by 28 June 2025.
The following Member States have not transposed the European Accessibility Act into national law by the deadline of 28 June 2022: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.
The second directive is Directive (EU) 2021/2261 amending Directive 2009/65/EC as regards the use of key information documents by management companies of undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS).
Each UCITS is already obliged to provide ‘key investor information' in accordance with EU rules. On 1 January 2023, UCITS will be required to provide the Key Information Document for Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance Products, which summarises and explains the key elements of each investment product – especially the costs, risks, and potential returns – so that private investors can better understand the product they are buying, and compare it with other products.
The amending directive aims to avoid a situation where two different pre-contractual disclosure documents are made available to retail investors in respect of the same UCITS.
The Commission is sending letters of formal notice to Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden since they have not transposed the Directive by the deadline of 30 June 2022.