Judgment_paragraph 85 · European Commission v Ireland (C-550/18)

85The arguments put forward by Ireland to explain the delay in transposing Directive 2015/849, principally that in order for the 2018 Act to be enacted it was necessary to embark on a lengthier process of transposition in order to ensure the effectiveness of that directive’s provisions are not such as to affect the seriousness of the infringement at issue since, according to settled case-law, a Member State cannot rely on practices or circumstances existing in its internal legal order to justify its failure to comply with the obligations and time limits laid down by EU directives, nor therefore the late or incomplete implementation of directives. Likewise, it is irrelevant that the failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations is the result of technical difficulties encountered by it (see, in particular, judgment of 7 May 2002, Commission v Netherlands, C‑364/00, EU:C:2002:282, paragraph 10 and the case-law cited). Indeed, if the period allowed for the implementation of a directive proves to be too short, the only means of action compatible with EU law available to the Member State concerned consists in taking the appropriate initiatives in order to obtain the necessary extension of the period by the competent EU institution (see, to that effect, judgment of 1 October 1998, Commission v Spain, C‑71/97, EU:C:1998:455, paragraph 16).