Judgment_paragraph 81 · European Commission v Slovak Republic (C-540/21)

81In that regard, in accordance with settled case-law, although the concept of force majeure is not predicated on absolute impossibility, it nevertheless requires the non-conformity in question to be attributable to circumstances beyond the control of the party claiming force majeure, which are abnormal and unforeseeable and the consequences of which could not have been avoided despite the exercise of all due diligence, and a situation of force majeure may be pleaded only for the period necessary in order to resolve those difficulties (see, to that effect, judgments of 13 December 2001, Commission v France, C‑1/00, EU:C:2001:687, paragraph 131 and the case-law cited, and of 4 March 2010, Commission v Italy, C‑297/08, EU:C:2010:115, paragraph 85 and the case-law cited).