Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Examination of the merits by the Court — Situation to be taken into consideration — Situation at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion — (Art. 226 EC)

2. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — Need for clear and precise transposition — Transposition of a directive without legislative action — Conditions — Existence of general principles of law ensuring the full application of the directive — (Art. 249, para. 3, EC)

3. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — Need for full transposition — Provision concerning only the relations between the Member States and the Commission — Provision not necessarily entailing specific transposing measures — Possibility for the Commission to demonstrate the need to adopt specific transposing measures

4. Procedure — Application initiating proceedings — Requirements as to form — Unambiguous wording of the form of order sought by the applicant — (Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 38(1))

Summary

1. In proceedings under Article 226 EC, the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation obtaining in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion and the Court cannot take account of any subsequent changes.

see para. 43

2. The provisions of directives must be implemented with unquestionable binding force, and with the necessary specificity, precision and clarity, in order to satisfy the requirements of legal certainty. Mere administrative practices, which by their nature are alterable at will by the authorities and are not given appropriate publicity, cannot be regarded as constituting the proper fulfilment of a Member State ' s obligations flowing from Community law since they maintain, for the persons concerned, a state of uncertainty as regards the extent of their rights and obligations in a field governed by that law.

While it is therefore essential that the legal situation resulting from national implementing measures is sufficiently precise and clear to enable the individuals concerned to know the extent of their rights and obligations, it is none the less the case that, according to the very words of the third paragraph of Article 249 EC, Member States may choose the form and methods for implementing directives which best ensure the result to be achieved by the directives, and that provision shows that the transposition of a directive into national law does not necessarily require legislative action in each Member State. Thus it is not always necessary formally to enact the requirements of a directive in a specific express legal provision, since the general legal context may be sufficient for implementation of a directive, depending on its content. In particular, the existence of general principles of constitutional or administrative law may render superfluous transposition by specific legislative or regulatory measures provided, however, that those principles actually ensure the full application of the directive by the national authorities and that, where the relevant provision of the directive seeks to create rights for individuals, the legal situation arising from those principles is sufficiently precise and clear and that the persons concerned are put in a position to know the full extent of their rights and obligations and, where appropriate, to be able to invoke them before the national courts.

see paras 54-55

3. A provision of a directive which concerns only the relations between the Member States and the Commission does not, in principle, have to be transposed. However, given that the Member States are obliged to ensure that Community law is fully complied with, it is open to the Commission to demonstrate that compliance with a provision of a directive governing those relations requires the adoption of specific transposing measures in national law.

Where a Member State has chosen not to specify expressly the legal framework within which the national authorities are led to conduct such relations, it is responsible for any breach of the relevant obligations resulting from Community law.

see paras 92-93

4. It follows from Article 38(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court that the form of order sought by the applicant must be worded in unambiguous terms so that the Court does not risk either giving judgment ultra petita or failing to give judgment on a head of claim.

see para. 121