Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations - Merits considered by the Court - Situation to be taken into consideration - Situation at the expiry of the period set by the reasoned opinion

(EEC Treaty, Art. 169)

2. Member States - Obligations - Failure to fulfil - National provision incompatible with Community law maintained in force - Justification based on the existence of administrative practices ensuring the application of the Treaty - Not permissible

3. Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions - Measures having equivalent effect - Requirement of certification for radiocommunications receivers

(EEC Treaty, Art. 30)

4. Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions on exports - Measures having equivalent effect - Definition - Requirement for all radiocommunications transmitters and transceivers to be certified, with the possibility of obtaining exemption for equipment intended for export - Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 34)

Summary

1. In proceedings under Article 169 against a Member State for failure to fulfil its obligations in which the compatibility of national legislation with Community law is at issue, any amendments of that legislation are irrelevant for the purposes of the Court' s judgment on the subject-matter of the action, if they have not been implemented before the expiry of the period set by the reasoned opinion.

2. Mere administrative practices, which by their nature are alterable at will by the authorities and are not given the appropriate publicity, cannot be regarded as constituting the proper fulfilment of a Member State' s obligations under the Treaty, capable of terminating a failure to fulfil the same arising from the incompatibility of national law with Community law.

3. Irrespective of whether a certification procedure is appropriate for certain equipment capable of causing interference, a Member State which adopts and maintains in force a certification procedure applied without distinction to all radiocommunications equipment capable of reception only, with the sole exception of equipment intended exclusively for the reception of radio or television broadcasts, must be regarded as having failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 30 of the Treaty. Such a requirement constitutes an obstacle to intra-Community trade disproportionate to the aim pursued.

4. In prohibiting quantitative restrictions on exports and measures having equivalent effect, Article 34 of the Treaty concerns national measures which have as their specific object or effect the restriction of patterns of exports and thereby the establishment of a difference in treatment between the domestic trade of a Member State and its export trade, in such a way as to provide a special advantage for national production or for the domestic market of the State in question.

National rules do not, therefore, fall within the scope of that prohibition where they establish a certification procedure for radiocommunications transmitters and transceivers, applied both to products intended for the domestic market and to those intended for export, the latter, however, qualifying for exemption from certification. That last fact cannot be regarded as constituting a difference in treatment between domestic trade and export trade which has as its specific object or effect the restriction of patterns of exports.