45Accordingly, the fact that Directive 96/67 makes no mention of the possibility for Member States to introduce a transitional regime does not allow the conclusion to be drawn, as the Portuguese Republic claims, that that directive contains a lacuna and that Member States are free to introduce such a transitional regime, after, moreover, the expiry of the transposition period, as occurred in the present case. That would, in effect, allow a Member State to grant itself a new transposition period.
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