Judgment_paragraph 23 · Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of the Netherlands (C-152/98)

23It is settled case-law that the purpose of the pre-litigation procedure is to give the Member State concerned an opportunity, on the one hand, to comply with its obligations under Community law and, on the other, to avail itself of its right to defend itself against the objections formulated by the Commission. The subject-matter of an action brought under Article 169 of the Treaty is, therefore, delimited by the pre-litigation procedure provided for by that article. Accordingly, the action cannot be founded on any objections other than those stated in the pre-litigation procedure (see, to that effect, Case 51/83 Commission v Italy [1984] ECR 2793, paragraph 4, Case C-206/96 Commission v Luxembourg [1998] ECR I-3401, paragraph 13, and Case C-392/96 Commission v Ireland [1999] ECR I-5901, paragraph 51).