Court of Justice 28-01-1981 ECLI:EU:C:1981:23

Opinion of Mr Advocate General Reischl

delivered on 28 January 1981 ^(*)

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

A further case requiring to be dealt with today concerns Council Directive 76/769/EEC, issued on 27 July 1976, on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations (Official Journal L 262 of 27 September 1976, p. 201 et seq. ).

According to Article 3 thereof — for further details I refer to the Report for the Hearing — the Member States had to bring into force the provisions necessary to comply with the directive within 18 months of its notification. That period expired on 2 February 1978.

Proceedings under Article 169 of the EEC Treaty were begun by a letter from the Commission dated 28 January 1979. The defendant, the Italian Republic, has pointed out that Community activity in the sphere of harmonization directives has increased considerably in recent years, so that it is often necessary to resort to legislative procedures in order to fulfil obligations under Community law. The Italian Government is therefore endeavouring to secure authorization from the Italian Parliament in order to be able to comply with these numerous obligations by means of decrees. The Senate gave its assent to a draft Law to that effect on 16 July 1980, which is at present still under scrutiny by the Chamber of Deputies. After its enactment, a firm date for which admittedly cannot be given, it will immediately be possible to implement numerous Community directives, including the one concerned in these proceedings.

Here again it has to be stated that under existing case-law, as cited in detail by the Commission, it is clear that such a defence to proceedings under Article 169 of the EEC Treaty is futile.

Since provisions to implement the aforesaid directive have to this day not been adopted in Italy it is necessary, in this case too, to declare that the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty by not bringing into force within the prescribed period provisions to implement Directive 76/769/EEC. Furthermore, the Italian Republic must be ordered to pay the costs in this case also, as sought by the Commission.