Case C-261/02: Action brought on 15 July 2002 by the Commission of the European Communities against the French Republic
Date: 2002-08-24
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, France, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, fine, insurance, life assurance, national implementing measure

24.8.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 202/17

— F a i l u r e t o c o m p l y w i t h s t a t u t o r y p r o -

v i s i o n s

The Court of First Instance incorrectly held that, pursuant to
Article 40(4)(d) of the Staff Regulations, on expiry of his leave
on personal grounds, the appellant must be ‘reinstated in the
first post corresponding to his grade which falls vacant in his
category or service provided that he satisfies the requirements
for that post’. An official who is seriously ill clearly does not
satisfy the requirements for reinstatement.

(1) Not yet published in the European Court Reports.

b. Order the French Republic to pay into the account ‘own
resources of the EC’ of the Commission of the European
Communities a penalty payment of EUR 242 650 in
respect of each day’s delay in implementing the measures
necessary to comply with the judgment in Case C-239/
98 Commission v France;

c. Order the French Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Although Article 228 EC does not specify the period available
to the Member State to comply with its obligations, it is none
the less the case that implementation of the judgment must be
initiated immediately and be completed as quickly as possible.
In the present case, all the provisions and measures necessary
for the French Republic to bring its legislation into conformity
with the judgment of the Court should long since have been
adopted and have entered into force; at the time of the
Commission’s reasoned opinion, almost a year had already
passed since the Court’s judgment. The texts communicated
by the French authorities subsequent to the reply to the
reasoned opinion still represent merely a very fragmented and
unsatisfactory implementation of the judgment of 16 Decem-
ber 1999.

that a penalty payment of
The Commission considers
EUR 242 650 per day is appropriate, given the seriousness
and duration of the infringement, as well as the need to apply
an effective penalty. It calculated the amount of the penalty to
be proposed to the Court by using the method of calculation
defined in its information notice of 8 January 1997 (4). It
attributed to the seriousness of the infringement the coefficient
10/20 and to the duration of the infringement a coefficient of
2.3. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the penalty, it
applied the factor 21.1 to the result obtained by multiplying
the uniform flat-rate amount of EUR 500 by the coefficient of
seriousness and of duration.

(1) OJ L 228 of 11.8.1992, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 360 of 9.12.1992, p. 1.
(3) [1999] ECR I-8935.
(4) OJ C 63 of 28.2.1997, p. 2.

Action brought on 15 July 2002 by the Commission of
the European Communities against the French Republic

(Case C-261/02)

(2002/C 202/25)

An action against the French Republic was brought before the
Court of Justice of the European Communities on 15 July
2002 by the Commission of the European Communities,
represented by C. Tufvesson and H. van Lier, acting as Agents,
with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission of the European Communities claims that
the Court should:

a. Declare that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and
administrative provisions necessary to comply fully with
Council Directive 92/49/EEC of 18 June 1992 on the
coordination of
laws, regulations and administrative
provisions relating to direct insurance other than life
assurance and amending Directives 73/239/EEC and 88/
357/EEC (third non-life insurance Directive) (1) and with
Council Directive 92/96/EEC of 10 November 1992 on
the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative
provisions relating to direct life assurance and amending
Directives 79/267/EEC and 90/619/EEC (third life assur-
ance Directive) (2) and, in particular, by not transposing
those directives with regard to mutual societies governed
by the Code de la Mutualité, the French Republic has
failed to implement all the measures necessary to comply
with the judgment of 16 December 1999 in Case C-239/
98 Commission v France (3) and has failed to fulfil
its
obligations under Article 228 EC;