Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:588
Date: 2001-10-25
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Trans-European networks
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Ireland

Summary of the Judgment 
Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — Need 
for complete transposition into national law — Fact that an activity referred to in a 
directive does not exist in a Member State — Irrelevant — Exception — Reasons of 
geography 
(Art. 249 EC, third para.) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-372/00 
The fact that an activity referred to in a 
directive does not exist in a particular 
Member State cannot release that State 
from its obligation to adopt laws or 
regulations in order to ensure that all the 
provisions of the directive are properly 
transposed. It is only where transposition 
of a directive is pointless for reasons of 
geography that it is not mandatory. 
(see paras 11, 13) 
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