Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations – Subject-matter of the dispute – Determination during the pre-litigation procedure – Details of the original objections in the application initiating proceedings – Whether permissible

(Art. 226 EC)

2. Freedom to provide services – Restrictions – Construction sector

(Art. 49 EC)

Summary

1. The fact that, in its application, the Commission sets out in detail the arguments supporting its conclusion as to the alleged failure to fulfil obligations, arguments already put forward in more general terms in the letter of formal notice and the reasoned opinion, and merely explains further why it takes the view that a scheme is incompatible with the freedom to provide services, does not alter the subject of that infringement and thus has no effect on the scope of the proceedings.

(see para. 47)

2. A Member State fails to fulfil its obligations under Article 49 EC by requiring providers of building services established in another Member State to satisfy all the requirements imposed by the relevant national scheme of the first Member State in order to obtain authorisation to exercise an activity in the construction sector, thereby excluding the possibility of account’s being duly taken of equivalent obligations to which such providers are subject in the Member State in which they are established, or of the verifications already carried out in that regard by the authorities of that State.

A restriction of Article 49 EC can be justified only to the extent that the public interest the national legislation seeks to protect is not safeguarded by the rules to which the service provider is subject in the Member State of establishment.

(see paras 100, 108, operative part)