Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Commission - Principle of collegiality - Scope

2 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Commission decisions to issue a reasoned opinion and to bring an action before the Court - Classification - Decisions forming part of the Commission's supervisory task - Application of the principle of collegiality

(EC Treaty, Arts 155 and 169)

3 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Commission decisions to issue a reasoned opinion and to bring an action before the Court - Application of the principle of collegiality - Scope - College must deliberate

4 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Pre-litigation procedure - Letter of formal notice - Delimitation of the subject-matter of proceedings - Reasoned opinion - Detailed statement of complaints

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

5 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Subject-matter of proceedings - Determination in the course of the pre-litigation procedure - Subsequently narrowed - Whether permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

6 Member States - Obligations - Implementation of directives - Failure to fulfil obligations - Justification - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

Summary

1 The functioning of the Commission is governed by the principle of collegiality. That principle is based on the equal participation of the Commissioners in the adoption of decisions, from which it follows in particular that decisions should be the subject of collective deliberation and that all the members of the college of Commissioners should bear collective responsibility at political level for all decisions adopted.

2 Decisions by the Commission to issue a reasoned opinion and to commence proceedings before the Court are subject to that principle of collegiality. Recourse to Article 169 of the Treaty provides one of the means by which the Commission ensures that the Member States give effect to the provisions of the Treaty and those adopted under the Treaty by the institutions. The decisions to issue a reasoned opinion and to commence proceedings before the Court thus come within the general scope of the supervisory task entrusted to the Commission under the first indent of Article 155 of the Treaty. In issuing a reasoned opinion, the Commission formally sets out its position with regard to the legal position of the Member State concerned. Moreover, by formally stating the infringement of the Treaty with which the Member State concerned is charged, the reasoned opinion concludes the pre-litigation procedure provided for in Article 169. The decision to issue a reasoned opinion cannot therefore be described as a measure of administration or management and may not be delegated. The same is true of the Commission's decision to apply to the Court for a declaration of failure to fulfil obligations, since such a decision falls within the discretionary power of the institution.

3 The formal requirements for effective compliance with the principle of collegiality, which is of concern to individuals affected by the legal consequences of a Commission decision, vary according to the nature and legal effects of the acts adopted by that institution. Thus the detailed procedure governing the collective deliberation by the college of Commissioners concerning the issue of the reasoned opinion and the bringing of an action for failure to fulfil obligations must therefore be determined in the light of the legal effects of those decisions with regard to the State concerned.

The reasoned opinion does not have any binding legal effect for its addressee. It is merely a pre-litigation stage of a procedure which may lead to an action before the Court and has legal effect only in relation to the commencement of proceedings, so that where a Member State does not comply with that opinion within the period allowed, the Commission has the right, but not the duty, to commence proceedings before the Court. The decision to commence proceedings before the Court, whilst it constitutes an indispensable step for the purpose of enabling the Court to give judgment on the alleged failure to fulfil obligations by way of a binding decision, nevertheless does not per se alter the legal position in question.

Accordingly, both the Commission's decision to issue a reasoned opinion and its decision to bring an action for a declaration of failure to fulfil obligations must be the subject of collective deliberation by the college of Commissioners. The information on which those decisions are based must be available to the members of the college. It is not, however, necessary for the college itself formally to decide on the wording of the acts which give effect to those decisions and put them in final form.

4 Although the reasoned opinion provided for in Article 169 of the Treaty must contain a coherent and detailed statement of the reasons which led the Commission to conclude that the State in question has failed to fulfil one of its obligations under the Treaty, the letter of formal notice cannot be subject to such strict requirements of precision, since it cannot, of necessity, contain anything more than an initial brief summary of the complaints. There is therefore nothing to prevent the Commission from setting out in detail in the reasoned opinion the complaints which it has already made more generally in the letter of formal notice.

5 Although it is true that the letter of formal notice from the Commission to the Member State and then the reasoned opinion issued by the Commission delimit the subject-matter of the dispute and consequently the reasoned opinion and the proceedings brought by the Commission must be based on the same complaints as those set out in the letter of formal notice initiating the pre-litigation procedure, that requirement cannot be carried so far as to mean that in every case the statement of complaints in the letter of formal notice, the operative part of the reasoned opinion and the form of order sought in the application must be exactly the same, provided that the subject-matter of the proceedings has not been extended or altered but simply limited.

6 A Member State may not plead internal circumstances in order to justify a failure to comply with obligations and time-limits resulting from rules of Community law.