1 By application lodged at the Court Registry on 17 September 1997, the Commission of the European Communities brought an action under Article 169 of the EC Treaty for a declaration that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with European Parliament and Council Directive 95/27/EC of 29 June 1995 amending Council Directive 86/662/EEC on the limitation of noise emitted by hydraulic excavators, rope-operated excavators, dozers, loaders and excavator-loaders (OJ 1995 L 168, p. 14, hereinafter `the Directive'), the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Directive and the EC Treaty.
2 Under the first subparagraph of Article 2(1) of the Directive Member States were to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive no later than 31 December 1995. Article 2(2) provides for Member States to communicate to the Commission the texts of the main provisions of domestic law which they adopt in the field governed by the Directive.
3 Since it had not received any communication relating to the transposition of the Directive into Belgian law and had no information to show that the Kingdom of Belgium had fulfilled that obligation, the Commission gave formal notice to that State by letter of 27 February 1996, calling on it to submit its observations within a period of two months.
4 In the absence of any reply from the Belgian authorities, the Commission, on 5 March 1997, sent a reasoned opinion to the Kingdom of Belgium, calling on it to take the measures necessary to comply with its obligations under the Directive within two months of its notification.
5 As no action was taken on that reasoned opinion, the Commission brought the present proceedings.
6 The Kingdom of Belgium does not dispute that the Directive was not transposed within the prescribed period, but explains that its implementation depended on implementation of Council Directive 84/532/EEC of 17 September 1984 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to common provisions for construction plant and equipment (OJ 1984 L 300, p. 111) which has been transposed at regional level, but not at national level. Following the entry into force of the special Law of 16 July 1993 on the completion of the federal structure of the State (Moniteur Belge, p. 16774), under which product standards fall within the competence of the national government, these directives have to be transposed at federal level. However, the Belgian Government points out that the transposition procedure in question has entered its final stage and that the draft royal decrees will shortly be submitted for signature to the Ministers responsible.
7 In that connection, it must be pointed out that, according to settled case-law, a Member State may not plead provisions, practices or circumstances existing in its internal legal system in order to justify a failure to comply with the obligations and time-limits laid down in a directive (see, in particular, Case C-298/97 Commission v Spain [1998] ECR I-3301, paragraph 14).
8 As the Directive was not transposed within the period prescribed therein, the Commission's action must be considered well founded.
9 Accordingly, it must be held that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive, the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Directive.