Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic (364/85)

Contents

Judgment of the Court29 January 1987^noteIn Case 364/85Commission of the European Communities, represented by Alberto Prozzillo, a member of its Legal Department, acting as Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of G. Kremlis, Jean Monnet Building, Kirchberg,vItalian Republic, represented by Luigi Ferrari Bravo, the Head of the Department for Contentious Diplomatic Legal Affairs, acting as Agent, assisted by Oscar Fiumara, avvocato dello Stato, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Italian Embassy,THE COURTcomposed of: Lord Mackenzie Stuart, President, T. F. O'Higgins and F. Schockweiler (Presidents of Chambers), G. Bosco, T. Koopmans, O. Due and K. Bahlmann, Judges,Advocate General: M. DarmonRegistrar: H. A. Rühl, Principal Administrator, acting for the Registrarhaving regard to the Report for the Hearing and further to the hearing on 19 November 1986,after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General delivered at the sitting on 19 November 1986,gives the following

Judgment

1By application lodged at the Court Registry on 25 November 1985 the Commission of the European Communities brought an action, pursuant to Article 169 of the EEC Treaty, for a declaration that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the provisions necessary to comply with Directives 80/219, 80/1098 and 80/1102, amending Directive 64/432 on animal health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovine animals and swine, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty.

2The directives in question are as follows:Council Directive 80/219/EEC of 22 January 1980 amending Directive 64/432/EEC as regards tuberculosis and brucellosis (Official Journal 1980, L 47, p. 25);Council Directive 80/1098/EEC of 11 November 1980 amending Directive 64/432/EEC with regard to swine vesicular disease and classical swine fever (Official Journal 1980, L 325, p. 11);Council Directive 80/1102/EEC of 11 November 1980 amending Directive 64/432/EEC with regard to enzootic bovine leukosis (Official Journal 1980, L 325, p. 18).

3Article 5 of Directive 80/219 provides that the Member States are to bring into force the necessary laws, regulations and administrative provisions by 31 December 1980 at the latest and are to inform the Commission thereof forthwith. Article 3 of Directive 80/1098 and Article 4 of Directive 80/1102 require the same steps to be taken by 1 July 1981 and 1 January 1981 respectively.

4Since it had received no communication from the Italian Government about the measures to be taken to transpose the directives in question into national law, the Commission sent it a letter on 22 December 1983 giving it formal notice and asking it to submit observations. After issuing a reasoned opinión on 25 November 1985, to which no response was forthcoming, the Commission brought this action.

5Reference is made to the Report for the Hearing for the background to the case and the submissions and arguments of the parties, which are mentioned or discussed hereinafter only in so far as is necessary for the reasoning of the Court.

6The Italian Government admits it has not fulfilled its obligations but points out that a bill designed to secure the transposition into national law of the directives in question is at present before the Senate. At the hearing it intimated that one of the Senate's advisory committees had adopted an opinion in favour of the bill, that the Chamber of Deputies had not yet examined the bill and that it trusted that the bill would be able to become law within two to three months.

7According to well-established case-law of the Court, 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 obligations and time-limits resulting from Community directives.

8Moreover, as the Court has stated in its judgment of 12 October 1982 (Case 136/81 Commission v Italian Republic [1985] ECR 3547), the governments of the Member States participate in the preparatory work for directives and must therefore be in a position to prepare, within the period prescribed, the draft legislative provisions necessary for their implementation.

9It must therefore be declared that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the provisions necessary to comply with Council Directive 80/219/EEC of 22 January 1980 and Council Directives 80/1098/EEC and 80/1102/EEC of 11 November 1980, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty.

Costs

10Under Article 69 (2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs. Since the defendant has failed in its submissions it must be ordered to pay the costs.

Operative part

On those grounds,THE COURThereby:

(1).Declares that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the provisions necessary to comply with Council Directive 80/219/EEC of 22 January 1980 and Council Directives 80/1098/EEC and 80/1102/EEC of 11 November 1980, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty;

(2).Orders the Italian Republic to pay the costs.

Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 29 January 1987.