A report published today by the European Commission shows serious shortcomings in the implementation of EU environmental law. This deprives citizens of the high level of environmental protection that they expect. The "Fifth Annual Survey on the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental law" illustrates that Member States are late in transposing environmental Directives: until the end of 2003, there were 88 cases in which environmental Directives were not transposed on time. In 118 cases, the Directives were not correctly transposed, and in 95 cases Member States did not meet "secondary" obligations under the Directives, for example deadlines for presenting certain plans, submitting data or designating protected areas. Compliance varies from Member State to Member State, with France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain having the worst records. Most shortcomings have been found in the sectors of water, waste, nature protection and environmental impact assessments.