Advocate-General Evgeni Tanchev, in his Opinion delivered on Thursday 28 March (Case C-569/17), takes the view that a State's failure to fulfil its obligations to notify measures transposing a European directive should also include cases of incomplete or incorrect transposition.
The Commission has brought infringement proceedings against Spain for failing to adopt the necessary measures to transpose Directive 2014/17/EU on consumer credit agreements for residential immovable property by 21 March 2016.
This case gives the Court the opportunity to rule on Article 260(3) TFEU for the first time.
In his Opinion, the Advocate General considers that the Article of the Treaty should be interpreted as including a Member State’s failure to fulfil its “substantive” obligation to transpose the directive. This interpretation therefore includes, in his view, a total failure to notify as well as incomplete or incorrect notification of the directive in question.
On the calculation of financial penalties, Mr Tanchev proposes that the Commission be entitled to use the same method as for financial penalties imposed under similar provisions of the Treaty. The Court may then impose, subject to a pre-determined ceiling, a lump sum and a penalty payment, or a financial penalty not suggested by the Commission.
In the present case, the Advocate General recommends that the reference date mentioned in the reasoned opinion, namely the expiry of the two-month period following receipt of the Commission's opinion, i.e. 18 January 2017, should be used as the starting date for the duration of the infringement.
Finally, Mr Tanchev recommends a daily penalty payment of 106,000 euros, i.e. the full amount specified by the Commission, until Spain complies with the Directive.
See conclusions: http://bit.ly/2YyxuJw. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)