Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:427
Date: 2002-07-09
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Financial provisions;Own resources
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Subject-matter of the dispute — Deter­
mination during the course of the pre-litigation procedure — Subject-matter adjusted 
because of an amendment to Community law — Whether permissible — Conditions 
(Art. 226 EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-363/00 
2. Own resources of the European Communities — Establishment and making available 
by Member States — Crediting the Commission's account — Delays in crediting — 
Obligation to pay default interest — Error by the national authorities in crediting the 
Commission's account — Not relevant 
(Council Regulation No 1150/2000, Art. 11) 
1. In the context of an action for failure to 
fulfil obligations, although the claims 
as stated in the application cannot in 
principle be extended beyond the 
infringements alleged in the operative 
part of the reasoned opinion and in the 
letter of formal notice, it is none the 
less true that, where Community law is 
amended during the course of the pre-
litigation procedure, the Commission 
has standing to seek a declaration that 
a Member State has failed to fulfil 
obligations which were created in the 
initial version of a Community meas­
ure, subsequently amended or repealed, 
and which were maintained in force 
under the new provisions. Conversely, 
the subject-matter of the dispute can­
not be extended to obligations arising 
under new provisions which do not 
correspond to those arising under the 
initial version of the measure con­
cerned, as otherwise it would consti­
tute a breach of the essential pro­
cedural requirements of infringement 
proceedings. 
(see para. 22) 
2. There is an inseparable link between 
the obligation to establish the Com­
munities' own resources, the obligation 
to credit them to the Commission's 
account within the prescribed time-
limit and the obligation to pay default 
interest. The default interest provided 
for by Article 11 of Regulation 
No 1150/2000 implementing Decision 
94/728 on the system of the Commun­
ities' own resources is payable in 
respect of any delay, regardless of the 
reason for the delay in making the 
entry in the Commission's account. 
It follows, on the one hand, that no 
distinction may be made between 
where delay is due to a clerical error 
and where it is due to an error in law 
and, on the other, that the uninten­
tional nature of the delay in making the 
entry cannot eliminate the obligation 
to pay default interest. 
(see paras 43-45) 
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