Commission's internal guidelines on enforcement
and use of Article 169
Conclusions of the Document on improving the Commission's
working methods for infringement procedures adopted by the Commission
on 30 July 1996
On the basis of the above considerations, it is proposed that
the Commission decide
- in order to speed up the processing of files:
(a) to give the following priority in dealing
with complaints:
- infringements which cause the greatest
damage to the Community legal order, i.e. failure to transpose
legislation and failure of national legislation generally to comply
with Community law;
- horizontal cases of incorrect application,
in particular when these are detected on the basis of a series
of specific complaints by individuals:
- infringements which seriously harm the
interests which the transgressed law is intended to protect.
(b) to bring greater flexibility to dealing
with the complaints deemed to be well-founded by asking the departments
concerned to find alternatives to initiating infringement proceedings;
(c) to publish in the Official Journal, C series,
an updated version of the model complaint published in OJ No C
26 of 1989, p.6, in order to provide objective information on
the role and powers of the commission regarding infringements
of Community law;
(d) to remind departments that the Article
169 letter is equivalent to a request for comments and instruct
them
- to revise the working of such letters
in order
- to make them less threatening;
- to lighten the content wherever
possible;
- to invite departments to propose issuing
Article 169 letters more quickly in order to strictly observe
the maximum one-year time limit;
- to organize contacts with the Member
States taking this one-year time limit into account, knowing that
the dialogue may continue after the Article 169 letter has been
sent;
(e) to provide for the possibility of refusing
to accept a proposal of postponement, if this would extend beyond
the one-year time limit:
(f) to strictly limit the duration of the internal
inquiry procedures to the time limits set in point 2.1.1.
(g) to have the Secretariat-General distribute,
with each "Infringements" report, the list of cases
on which a decision is being made, stating the stage that each
case is at;
(h) to ask the Secretariat-General to systematically
mention in all the lists of cases entered on the agenda of the
periodic reports those which exceed the current time limits in
the infringement procedures;
(i) to ask the Directors-General to step
up coordination of monitoring the implementation of Community
law within their DG;
(j) to ask the lead departments to consult
the associated departments as far upstream in the procedure as
possible, including DG XVI when the infringement case is connected
with Community funding;
(k) to maintain the current frequency of the
periodic reports, while providing for the possibility for the
departments to include an "A" case in a "B"
report and vice versa, as long as the case is ready for a decision
on the content, without prejudice to the possibility of recourse
to the bimonthly "state aids" meetings for duly justified
cases and as long as it does not disrupt the agenda of these meetings;
(l) to make it obligatory to have the
Article 169 letter translated into the language of the Member
State to which it is addressed before the proposal is submitted
to the Commission;
(m) that the departments must draw up a preparatory
note of analysis for the reasoned opinion in cases other than
cases of failure to communicate the national measures implementing
the directives;
(n) that the proposed reasoned opinion may
be submitted to the Commission only after drawing up a draft reasoned
opinion (which must be finalized before the preparatory meeting).
This reform will be implemented starting from the "A"
meeting 1/97;
- in order to simplify the rules of procedure:
(o) to ask the departments to use simplified
terminology as far as possible;
(p) to group the procedures together, as far
as possible;
(q) to simplify-and hence speed up-implementation
of the Commission's decisions by the following measures:
- the lead department sends the Secretariat-General
(SG/B/2) a single document: after approval by the competent cabinet,
the final version of the text of the Article 169 letter or the
reasoned opinion is sent by e-mail only;
(r) to distribute via the Secretariat-General
the timetable of "Infringements" reports at least six
months in advance;
- in order to increase the transparency of the Commission's
decisions on infringements:
(s) to postulate the principle that, with regard
to reasoned opinions and referrals, publication should become
the rule, in the sense that, unless the Commission decides otherwise,
a press release can always be put out without waiting for the
reasoned opinion to be issued or the appeal to be lodged;
(t) to confirm the well-established rule
according to which, before any press release is issued concerning
a Commission decision on an infringement, the Member State concerned
must first be informed by fax and receive a copy of the press
release.
Unless specified otherwise (see point (n) above), these measures
shall apply immediately.
