The European Commission last week announced further action to be taken in separate infringement proceedings against Hungary, Czechia and Bulgaria.

Hungary and Czechia will be referred to the CJEU over their alleged failure to correctly transpose the directive on the right of access to a lawyer and to communicate upon arrest (Directive 2013/48/EU).

With regards to Hungary, the Commission believes that rules about derogations from the right of access to a lawyer due to investigative needs and the waiver of the right of access to a lawyer are not correctly transposed.

In Czechia, the Commission believes that one of the Directive’s provisions in relation to possible derogations from the right of access to a lawyer has not been correctly transposed into national law.

The deadline for transposition of Directive 2013/48/EU was in November 2016.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria is being referred to the CJEU for allegedly failing to correctly transpose the directive on right to information in criminal proceedings (Directive 2012/13/EU).

This is because Bulgaria does not extend the rights of suspects under the directive to people who are de facto suspects of a criminal offence but have not been formally identified as accused persons.

The deadline for transposition of Directive 2012/13/EU was in June 2014.