Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2003:171
Date: 2003-03-20
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Seeds and seedlings;Plant health legislation
Concepts: Reasoned opinion of the Commission
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Pre-litigation procedure — Reasoned 
opinion — Contents — Commission's failure to adopt a position on the alleged 
difficulties of interpretation of a directive — Member State not permitted to rely on 
those difficulties to defer transposition of that directive 
(Art. 226 EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-135/01 
In the context of an action for failure to 
implement a directive, it is, in principle, for 
the Commission to set out, in its reasoned 
opinion, its assessment of the observations 
of the Member State in question set out in 
its response to the letter of formal notice. 
However, in failing to adopt a position on 
the alleged difficulties of interpretation 
surrounding a term in a provision of the 
directive which has not been transposed by 
that State and, in any event, failing to 
define that term in the course of the 
pre-litigation procedure, the Commission 
did not engender any uncertainty in that 
State as to the extent of its obligations to 
transpose and therefore did not prevent it 
from putting an end to the alleged infringe­
ment. 
First, the Commission is not empowered to 
determine conclusively, by reasoned 
op in ions fo rmula ted p u r s u a n t to 
Article 226 EC or other statements of its 
position in the course of such proceedings, 
the rights and duties of a Member State or 
to afford that State guarantees concerning 
the compatibility of a given line of conduct 
with Community law. Second, a Member 
State cannot rely on difficulties in inter­
preting a directive in order to delay trans­
posing it until after the prescribed period 
has expired. 
(see paras 22-25) 
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