Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1998:455
Date: 1998-10-01
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Pollution
Concepts: General;Defences;Binding nature of time-limits for implementation
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgmen t 
1. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Objective nature — Reason for the failure to fulfil 
obligations — No effect 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
2. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Delays in implementation — Extension of time-limit 
which has proven insufficient — Procedure 
(EC Treaty, Art. 189, para. 3) 
3. Member States — Obligations — Implementation of directives — Failure to fulfil obligations 
— Justification — Not permissible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-71/97 
4. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Measures adopted by the Member State concerned 
after proceedings have been commenced — Not relevant 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
1. The procedure laid down in Article 169 of 
the Treaty is based on the objective finding 
that a Member State has failed to fulfil its 
obligations under the Treaty or secondary 
legislation. When such a finding has been 
made it is irrelevant whether the failure to 
fulfil obligations is the result of intention 
or negligence on the part of the Member 
State responsible, or of technical difficul­
ties encountered by it. 
2. If the period allowed to a Member State 
for the implementation of a directive proves 
to be too short, the only means of action 
compatible with Community law available 
to the Member State concerned consists in 
taking the appropriate initiatives within 
the Community in order to obtain the 
necessary extension of the period by the 
competent Community institution. 
3. A Member State may not plead provisions 
and practices or circumstances existing in 
its internal legal system in order to justify 
a failure to comply with the obligations 
and time-limits laid down in a directive. 
4. In the context of an action for failure to 
fulfil obligations, the Court cannot take 
account of measures adopted by the 
Member State concerned after the com­
mencement of the action in order to comply 
with those obligations. 
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