Communication from the Commission

Updating of data used to calculate lump sum and penalty payments to be proposed by the Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Union in infringement proceedings

(2020/C 301/01)

I. Introduction

The 2005 Commission Communication on the application of Article 228 of the EC Treaty (1) (now Article 260(1) and (2) TFEU) established the basis on which the Commission calculates the amount of the financial sanctions (either lump sum or penalty payments) that it requests the Court of Justice to apply when the Commission brings a case before the Court under Article 260(2) TFEU, in the context of infringement proceedings against a Member State.

In its Communication of 2010 (2) on the updating of the data used for this calculation, the Commission established that these macroeconomic data should be adjusted every year, in order to take into account inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) movements.

The 2011 Commission Communication on the implementation of Article 260(3) TFEU (3) and the 2017 Commission Communication ‘EU law: Better results through better application’ (4) emphasise that the same method as established by the 2005 Communication applies for the calculation of the financial sanctions which the Commission requests the Court of Justice to apply under Article 260(3) TFEU.

The update provided in this Communication (5) is based on developments in the inflation and GDP of each Member State and of the United Kingdom (6), reflecting their payment capacity. The relevant statistics that are to be used relating to the rate of inflation and GDP are those established two years prior to the update (‘t-2 rule’), i.e. 2018, as two years is the minimum period of time necessary for gathering relatively stable macroeconomic data. In addition, for this year’s update, another factor is the benchmark revision of national accounts (7) performed by 17 Member States and the United Kingdom, in the second semester of 2019, to incorporate new data sources and changes in international statistical methodology.

Pursuant to Articles 127 and 131 of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement (8), during the transition period, the status quo ante is maintained vis-à-vis the United Kingdom as regards the application and enforcement of EU law. The Commission may initiate new and pursue existing infringement procedures against the United Kingdom. The updates presented in this Communication therefore include updates of the United Kingdom data.

As already stated in the Communication of February 2019, the Commission will recalculate the figures at the end of the transition period.

II. Components of the update

The list of economic criteria to be updated is as follows:

— the standard flat-rate amount for the penalty payment (9), currently fixed at EUR 3 116, to be revised in line with inflation,

— the standard flat-rate amount for calculating the daily amount in order to determine the lump sum (10), currently fixed at EUR 1 039, to be revised in line with inflation,

— the special ‘n’ factor, to be revised in line with the GDP of the Member State in question, taking into account the number of seats it has in the European Parliament; the ‘n’ factor is identical for the calculation of lump sum and daily penalty payments,

— minimum lump sum payments (11) to be revised in line with inflation.

III. Updates

The Commission will apply the following updated figures to calculate the amount of the financial sanctions (lump sum or penalty payments) when it brings a case to the Court of Justice under Article 260(2) and (3) TFEU:

(1) the standard flat rate for calculating the penalty payment is EUR 3 154;

(2) the standard flat rate for calculating the daily amount in order to determine the lump sum is EUR 1 052;

(3) the special ‘n’ factor and the minimum lump sum for the 27 EU Member States and the United Kingdom are set as follows: Member State Special ‘n’ factor Minimum lump sum (EUR 1 000 ) Belgium 0,80 2 088 Bulgaria 0,25 653 Czechia 0,53 1 384 Denmark 0,51 1 331 Germany 4,59 11 982 Estonia 0,10 261 Ireland 0,48 1 253 Greece 0,50 1 305 Spain 2,06 5 377 France 3,39 8 849 Croatia 0,19 496 Italy 2,91 7 596 Cyprus 0,09 235 Latvia 0,12 313 Lithuania 0,18 470 Luxembourg 0,15 392 Hungary 0,43 1 122 Malta 0,07 183 Netherlands 1,15 3 002 Austria 0,67 1 749 Poland 1,29 3 367 Portugal 0,53 1 384 Romania 0,66 1 723 Slovenia 0,15 392 Slovakia 0,28 731 Finland 0,45 1 175 Sweden 0,79 2 062 United Kingdom 3,41 8 901

The Commission will apply the updated figures to decisions it takes to bring a case before the Court of Justice under Article 260 TFEU as from the adoption of this Communication.

(1) SEC(2005) 1658 (OJ C 126, 7.6.2007, p. 15).

(2) SEC(2010) 923/3. This Communication has been updated in 2011 [SEC(2011) 1024 final], in 2012 [C(2012) 6106 final], in 2013 [C(2013) 8101 final], in 2014 [C(2014) 6767 final], in 2015 [C(2015) 5511 final], in 2016 [C(2016) 5091 final], in 2017 [C(2017) 8720 final] and in 2018 [C(2018) 5851 final] for the yearly adjustment of economic data.

(3) OJ C 12, 15.1.2011, p. 1.

(4) OJ C 18, 19.1.2017, p. 10.

(5) The GDP data for this year’s update were extracted on 11 June 2020.

(6) According to the general rules set out in the Communications of 2005 and 2010.

(7) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/737960/9861115/Benchmark_revisions_2019.pdf

(8) Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ C 384 I , 12.11.2019, p. 1).

(9) The standard or uniform flat-rate amount for daily penalty payments is defined as the fixed basic amount to which certain multiplier weightings are applied. The weightings are the coefficients for the seriousness and the duration of the infringement and the special ‘n’ factor corresponding to the Member State concerned.

(10) The flat-rate amount is to be applied when calculating the lump sum. As regards Article 260(2) TFEU, the lump sum will result from multiplying a daily amount (resulting from multiplying the standard flat-rate amount by the coefficient for seriousness, and the result of this calculation being multiplied by the special ‘n’ factor) by the number of days the infringement persists between the date of the first judgment and the date that the infringement comes to an end or the date of delivery of the judgment under Article 260(2) TFEU. As regards Article 260(3) TFEU, according to point 28 of the Commission Communication on ‘Implementation of Article 260(3) of the Treaty’ [SEC(2010) 1371 final] (OJ C 12, 15.1.2011, p. 1), the lump sum will result from multiplying a daily amount (resulting from multiplying the standard flat-rate amount by the coefficient for seriousness, and the result of this calculation being multiplied by the special ‘n’ factor) by the number of days from the day after the expiry of the time limit for transposition set out in the directive until the date that the infringement comes to an end or the date of delivery of the judgment under Articles 258 and 260(3) TFEU. The lump sum calculated on the basis of the daily amount should apply when the result of the above-mentioned calculation exceeds the minimum lump sum.

(11) The minimum fixed lump sum payment is determined for each Member State and the UK according to the special ‘n’ factor. The minimum fixed lump sum will be proposed to the Court when the summed-up daily lump sum payments do not exceed the minimum fixed lump sum.