ESA takes Iceland to Court for failing to incorporate EEA rules on port infrastructure

The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has today referred Iceland to the EFTA Court for not having incorporated into national legislation EEA legal acts concerning port infrastructure.

The first act establishes a framework for the provision of port services and common rules on the financial transparency of ports. The second act amended the first act to introduce the possibility for flexible collection of port infrastructure charges in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The first act was recently cited by the Icelandic Competition Authority in its opinion on competition barriers in the transport market. It noted that the incorporation of the act into Icelandic law might serve to address some of the issues identified by the ICA.

ESA has not been notified, and does not have any other information to suggest, that Iceland has implemented the two acts into national legislation. The time-limit to implement these acts was 1 February 2023.

Today's decisions to refer the matter to the EFTA Court are the third and final stage in ESA's formal infringement proceedings against Iceland. It is now up to the EFTA Court to rule on the matter.

Read ESA's decisions here and here.

Additional Court referrals

The above Court referrals follows two other cases concerning Iceland's failure to implement EEA Acts into national law that ESA referred to the EFTA Court on 24 April.

The first of these concerns EEA rules which require that a proportionality test be conducted before a State introduces or amends rules restricting access to regulated professions.

The second of these concerns technical rules supplementing the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV). The EEA States were required to implement these Acts by 1 February 2023 and 1 July 2022, respectively. In both cases Iceland has failed to do so, despite ESA's reminders, leading ESA to refer these cases to the EFTA Court.

These decisions can be found here and here.

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