Europe takes Spain to court over port security

The European Commisison said 20 of Spain’s ports do not meet security requirements.    The European Commission will take formal action against Spain in the European Union’s Court of Justice for the country’s failure to properly secure 20 of its ports.
   Through directive 2005/65/EC, the commission set a deadline of June 2007 to enact port security reforms to create a uniform level of security for all European reports. After that date, officials have gone into ports to conduct security audits, telling countries lagging behind in their security obligations to prepare security plans with timelines for implementation, the commission said.
   “The Spanish authorities … launched an action plan with all the relevant national and local authorities in order to implement, within a reasonable period of time, the provisions of the directive in all Spanish ports,” according to a commission press release. “Despite significant efforts, the deadline set for the end of 2013 in the action plan could not be met, and the Spanish authorities still need to adopt about 20 port security plans.”