Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations – Subject-matter of the dispute – Plea that a Member State be ordered to take specific measures – Inadmissible

(Art. 226 EC)

2. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations – Subject-matter of the dispute – Determination during the procedure prior to the action

(Art. 226 EC)

3. Own resources of the European Communities – Establishment and making available by the Member States

(Art. 10 EC; Council Regulation No 1552/89, Arts 6(2)(b) and 17)

4. Member States – Obligations – Supervisory tasks assigned to the Commission – Duty of the Member States – Cooperation in inquiries into whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations

(Arts 10 EC and 226 EC; Council Regulation No 1552/89, Art. 18)

Summary

1. The purpose of an action under Article 226 EC is to obtain a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its Community obligations. When there is a finding of infringement, Article 228 EC expressly requires the Member State in question to take the measures necessary to comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice. The Court cannot, however, order the Member State to take specific measures. Consequently, the Court cannot, in the context of infringement proceedings, rule on pleas which seek an order that the Member State enter determined amounts in accounts, provide information concerning certain amounts and transfers and pay default interest.

(see paras 44-45)

2. The letter of formal notice sent by the Commission to a Member State, and the reasoned opinion issued by the Commission, pursuant to Article 226 EC, delimit the subject-matter of the dispute, so that it cannot thereafter be extended. The opportunity for the Member State concerned to submit its observations, even if it chooses not to avail itself thereof, constitutes an essential guarantee intended by the Treaty, adherence to which is an essential formal requirement of the procedure for finding that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations. However, there can be no requirement that in every case the statement of complaints in the letter of formal notice, the operative part of the reasoned opinion and the form of order sought in the application must be exactly the same, where the subject-matter of the proceedings as defined in the reasoned opinion has not been extended or altered but simply limited.

(see paras 47-48)

3. A Member State which unilaterally decides, despite objections by the Commission, to suspend legal procedures for recovery from the guaranteeing associations referred to in Article 8 of the Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets of established claims relating to TIR carnets, to conclude standstill agreements with them and accordingly to enter those entitlements, which had been definitively established, in the separate accounts referred to in Article 6(2)(b) of Regulation No 1552/89 implementing Decision 88/376 on the system of the Communities’ own resources (the B accounts), rather than in the A accounts, up to the ceiling agreed upon for the TIR system, without the entitlements in question having been challenged by the guaranteeing association within the prescribed periods and being susceptible to change upon settlement of the disputes which had arisen, infringes the obligation on Member States under the said regulation to take all requisite measures to ensure that the own resources established in accordance with the conditions laid down in that regulation are made available to the Commission.

(see paras 76, 83, 86-87, 89, 99, operative part)

4. Article 10 EC makes it clear that the Member States are required to cooperate in good faith with the enquiries of the Commission pursuant to Article 226 EC, and to provide the Commission with all the information requested for that purpose.

Regarding the Member States’ obligation to take, in genuine cooperation with the Commission, the measures needed to ensure the application of the Community provisions relating to establishment of possible own resources, it follows in particular from that obligation, laid down more specifically in respect of checks in Article 18 of Regulation No 1552/89 implementing Decision 88/376 on the system of the Communities’ own resources, that where the Commission is largely dependent on the information provided by the Member State concerned, that Member State is required to make supporting documents and other relevant documentation available to the Commission under reasonable conditions, to enable it to verify whether, and, as the case may be, to what extent the amounts concerned relate to the Communities’ own resources.

(see paras 93-94)