Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fourth Chamber)
28 October 2004 (1)

applicant,

v

defendant,

THE COURT (Fourth Chamber),

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

Judgment

1. By its action, the Commission of the European Communities is requesting the Court to declare that, by not adopting the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles (OJ 2000 L 269, p. 34), Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive and in particular Article 10(1) thereof and also under the EC Treaty.
2. Article 10(1) of Directive 2000/53 provides that Member States are to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with that directive by 21 April 2002 and that they are immediately to inform the Commission thereof. When Member States adopt those measures, they are to contain a reference to the directive or are to be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such a reference are to be laid down by Member States.
3. Since it had received no notification of the measures taken to implement Directive 2000/53 in Irish law within the period prescribed by that directive, the Commission initiated the procedure for failure to fulfil obligations. After having given notice to Ireland to submit its observations, the Commission issued a reasoned opinion on 18 October 2002 requesting that Member State to take the measures necessary to comply therewith within two months of receipt of the opinion.
4. In their reply of 3 March 2003, the Irish authorities informed the Commission of the progress made in implementing Directive 2000/53 and stated that they intended to complete the necessary work as soon as possible.
5. The principal national measure permitting Ireland to implement the directive was adopted on 14 July 2003. It was not immediately notified to the Commission and, moreover, constitutes only an incomplete implementation of the directive, full implementation being envisaged only on 1 March 2005. Consequently, the Commission brought the present action.
6. The Commission maintains that, by not adopting the measures necessary to comply with Directive 2000/53, Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the relevant provisions thereof.
7. Ireland does not dispute that, upon expiry of the period prescribed in the reasoned opinion, the measures necessary to implement Directive 2000/53 had not yet been taken. However, it claims that on 10 November 2003 it formally notified the Commission of the regulations which would serve as the basis for the full implementation of the directive.
8. As regards the information provided by the Irish Government concerning the progress made in the procedure for implementing the directive in question, whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion and the Court cannot take account of any subsequent changes (see, inter alia, Case C-310/03 Commission v Luxembourg [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 7, and Case C-312/03 Commission v Belgium [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 7).
9. In the present case, it is not in dispute that the measures intended to implement Directive 2000/53 in Irish law had not been adopted on expiry of the period prescribed in the reasoned opinion.
10. Accordingly, the Commission-�s action must be considered well founded.
11. Consequently, it should be held that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2000/53, Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive.

Costs
12. Under Article 69(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs if they have been applied for in the successful party-�s pleadings. Since the Commission has asked for Ireland to be ordered to pay the costs and the latter has been unsuccessful, it must be ordered to pay the costs.




On those grounds, the Court (Fourth Chamber) hereby:
1. Declares that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles, Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive and in particular Article 10(1) thereof;
2. Orders Ireland to pay the costs.

Signatures.

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1 - Language of the case: English.