Commission set to fine errant states

Date: 28/11/1996

By Rory Watson

AFTER months of foot-dragging, the European Commission is gearing itself up for the political challenge of imposing fines on member states which blatantly ignore rulings from the European Court of Justice.

“The aim is to decide this by the end of the year,” a senior official confirmed this week.

The first batch of five tests cases is understood to involve Germany, France and Belgium, which have been singled out for violating EU single market and environmental legislation.

The Commission has come in for increasing criticism recently for not using the powers it was given by the Maastricht Treaty three years ago to seek ECJ approval for financial penalties on governments which fail to implement EU legislation.

The criteria to be used when applying the powers were agreed in June, but the Commission has since hesitated in submitting individual cases and recommendations for specific fines to the ECJ.

Senior officials insist that the delay has been caused by difficulties in establishing appropriate rules for setting the scale of financial penalties and ensuring their enforcement.

But critics believe that it is the fear of challenging the Union's larger member states which has persuaded the Commission to tread cautiously.

Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti rejected charges of procrastination this week.

“The guidelines concerning the hierarchy of violations were decided a few months ago. The actual cases have not yet been decided,” he said, adding: “This is of course an extreme and ultimate sanction - one that I believe will be applied fairly rarely. It must have a substantial pre-emptive effect.”

Although these test cases are not formally on the agenda of the next regular meeting of senior officials examining alleged infringements of EU legislation next Thursday (5 December), sources insist work on them is continuing. They also suggest the Commission is considering a two-stage approach to the fines to reduce the risk of being accused of a politically-abrasive move in asking the Luxembourg-based judges' approval to fine member states.

This would involve firing a preliminary shot across the bows of the three governments by deciding to refer the five cases to the ECJ, but leaving recommendations on the level of fines to be adopted at a later date, giving the culprits time to comply fully with the legislation concerned.