Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Infringement terminated before the expiry of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion - Inadmissibility

(EEC Treaty, second para. of Art. 169)

Summary

Under the second paragraph of Article 169 of the Treaty, an action for failure to fulfil an obligation may only be brought before the Court if the Member State in question has not complied with the reasoned opinion within the period laid down by the Commission. An action for failure to fulfil obligations is therefore inadmissible if, upon the expiry of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion, the infringement complained of, which had produced its effects without the Commission' s having employed all the means available to it to prevent it, no longer existed.