EU Cites 9 Countries for Pollution Non-Compliance

The rulers came out today at the EU, and tonight, nine member states—a full third of the EU—will be nursing swollen knuckles.

The discipline stems from the collective failure of Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain to conform to UN pollution control statutes. While the punishment this time around is merely a written warning, second offenses carry heavy fines.

This is just the latest in a long line of environmental snafus for Greece. The Mediterranean nation, whose capitol, Athens, features some of the worst gridlock in the world, found itself suspended from the UN’s carbon trading program last month for failing to maintain an accurate measure of its greenhouse emissions.

The offense is something of a surprise for the Netherlands, which boasts some of the best developed and most widely used bicycle infrastructure in Europe, not to mention a few bunch of other really cool green innovations. Anyone out there have inside information on the causes behind the Dutch slip up?