EU Clamp Down

In the toughest measures taken, the European Union's executive arm called on an EU court to order France and Italy to be fined millions of euros for defying EU environmental laws.

It said France should be fined 38 million euros ($50 million) plus daily penalties for failing to adopt EU rules on the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment.

"European legislation on GMOs seeks to ensure the highest protection of health and the environment," said Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

"It is therefore difficult to understand why France has not complied with the judgment of the court," he added.

Taking Italy to the European Court of Justice for a second time on the same question, the commission called for fines of nearly 29 million euros plus daily penalties for failing to clean up two illegal land fills.

"It is highly regrettable that we have to go to court a second time against Italy and request fines, but the fundamental issue at stake here is the health of EU citizens and the protection of our environment," Dimas said.

Other countries in court

In other measures, the commission also decided to take Finland, Sweden and Portugal to the European Court of Justice for failing to ensure correct treatment of urban waste water in a "significant number" of towns and cities.

Brussels also launched legal action against Austria, Italy and Spain for allowing wild birds to be hunted without enough controls and failing to protect them as a result.

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal were taken to task with first formal warnings for not adopting EU landfill rules into their national laws correctly.

Greenhouse gases

Austria, Denmark, Hungary and Italy were sent warnings for missing a June deadline on notifying their plans to allocate greenhouse gas pollution quotas to industrial plants under the EU's emissions trading scheme.

France, Germany, Estonia, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia and Spain were also given warnings for submitting incomplete allocation plans to the commission.

The EU executive likewise directed legal action against Spain in six separate cases, mainly concerning water pollution. Greece was also rebuffed for its failure to keep water sources cleaner and allowing too high sulfur content in fuel.

Meanwhile, Poland was given a final written warning before court action for not proposing more nature sites and was criticized for allowing eight road projects to go ahead that encroach upon designated or potential nature areas.