Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Pre-litigation procedure - Reasoned opinion - Contents - Reference to a letter from the authorities of the Member State concerned acknowledging the failure - Irrelevant

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

Summary

The reasoned opinion issued by the Commission in the course of proceedings for a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must contain a coherent and detailed statement of the reasons which persuaded the Commission that the State concerned had failed to fulfil one of its obligations under the Treaty.

If the reasoned opinion in which the Commission complains that a Member State has incompletely transposed a directive and has failed to inform it of the transposition measures satisfies those requirements, it is irrelevant that, as evidence of the failure, the Commission refers to a letter from the authorities concerned in which they acknowledge that the directive has not been transposed in full.