Commission v Italy (Environment and consumers) [2003] EUECJ C-22/02 (11 September 2003)

Judgment By application lodged at the Court Registry on 29 January 2002, the Commission of the European Communities brought an action under Article 226 EC for a declaration that, by failing to adopt or, in any event, to communicate to it the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 1999/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 relating to the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger cars (OJ 2000 L 12, p. 16; the Directive), the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 12 of the Directive. Legal context and pre-litigation procedure Article 12 of the Directive provides: 1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 18 January 2001. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. ... 2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive. Since the Commission took the view that the Directive had not been transposed into Italian law within the period laid down, it initiated the procedure for failure to fulfil obligations. After giving the Italian Republic formal notice to submit its observations, the Commission issued a reasoned opinion on 26 July 2001 calling on it to adopt the measures necessary to comply with the opinion within a period of two months from the date of its notification. Since the Italian Republic did not reply to the opinion, the Commission brought the present action. Consideration of the application Arguments of the Italian Republic The Italian Government does not dispute that it has not implemented the Directive within the prescribed period but maintains that implementation is under way. It states that various problems of an institutional, administrative, technical and financial nature have hitherto prevented completion of the implementation procedure, but that procedure has been initiated and is currently in progress. The Italian Government explains that the Directive concerns a matter falling within the competence of various ministries, resulting in a need for coordination and for information to be obtained from the various departments. Furthermore, the recent reform of Title V of the Constitution, which involves a new division of legislative and administrative powers between the State and the regions, makes it necessary to verify the new role played by those territorial authorities both at the legislative stage and at the stage of putting the legislation into effect and monitoring. According to the Italian Government, numerous technical and financial problems must be resolved before the Directive can be implemented. It observes that the Community legislation lays down in minute detail a binding system for informing consumers by means of various instruments, such as labels, posters and guides, which must be created from scratch, and that it was also necessary to find in the State budget the resources enabling a contribution to be made to the costs entailed by the new information system. Findings of the Court It is settled case-law that the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion (see, inter alia , Case C-71/99 Commission v Germany [2001] ECR I-5811 , paragraph 29, and Case C-110/00 Commission v Austria [2001] ECR I-7545 , paragraph 13). In the present case, the Directive was not implemented within the period prescribed by the reasoned opinion. Moreover, the Court has repeatedly held that a Member State may not plead provisions, practices or circumstances in its own legal order to justify failure to implement a directive within the prescribed period (see, inter alia , Case C-352/01 Commission v Spain [2002] ECR I-10263, paragraph 8). Accordingly, the action brought by the Commission must be considered to be well founded. It must therefore be held that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Directive. Costs 12. Under Article 69(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs if they have been applied for in the successful party's pleadings. Since the Commission has applied for costs and the Italian Republic has been unsuccessful, the latter must be ordered to pay the costs. On those grounds, THE COURT (Second Chamber), hereby: 1. Declares that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 1999/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 relating to the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger cars, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive; 2. Orders the Italian Republic to pay the costs. Schintgen Skouris Colneric Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 11 September 2003. R. Grass R. Schintgen Registrar President of the Second Chamber 1: Language of the case: Italian. BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Donate to BAILII