Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Pre-litigation procedure - Letter of formal notice - Delimitation of the subject-matter of the dispute - Reasoned opinion - Detailed statement of objections

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

2 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Subject-matter of the dispute - Determined during the pre-litigation procedure - Later alteration narrowing down the subject-matter of the dispute - Whether permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

3 Approximation of laws - Procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations - Member States' obligation to inform the Commission of draft technical regulations - Purpose and scope - National legislation containing a number of provisions not constituting technical regulations - Obligation to provide the complete text

(Council Directive 83/189, Art. 8(1), first para.)

Summary

4 The purpose of the letter of formal notice at the pre-litigation stage of the procedure for establishing a Member State's failure to fulfil its obligations is to delimit the subject-matter of the dispute and to indicate to the Member State asked to submit its observations the factors enabling it to prepare its defence.

Although the reasoned opinion provided for in Article 169 of the Treaty must contain a coherent and detailed statement of the reasons which led the Commission to conclude that the State in question has failed to fulfil one of its obligations under the Treaty, the letter of formal notice cannot be subject to such strict requirements of precision, since it cannot, of necessity, contain anything more than an initial brief summary of the Commission's complaints.

5 Although the subject-matter of proceedings brought under Article 169 of the Treaty is circumscribed by the pre-litigation procedure provided for by that provision and, consequently, the Commission's reasoned opinion and the application must be based on the same complaints, that requirement cannot be stretched so far as to mean that in every case the statement of the subject-matter of the proceedings in the reasoned opinion must be exactly the same as the form of order sought in the application if the subject-matter of the proceedings has not been extended or altered but simply limited.

6 The aim of the last sentence of the first subparagraph of Article 8(1) of Directive 83/189, laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, is to enable the Commission to have as much information as possible on any draft technical regulation with respect to its content, scope and general context, in order to enable it to exercise as effectively as possible the powers conferred on it by the directive. It follows that only full communication of the text of a piece of national legislation can enable the Commission to evaluate the exact scope of any technical regulations contained in that legislation where many of its provisions do not constitute technical regulations.

However, the mere fact that all the provisions contained in a piece of national legislation are notified to the Commission does not prevent the Member State concerned from bringing into force immediately - and therefore without waiting for the outcome of the examination procedure provided for by the directive - the provisions that do not constitute technical regulations.