Financial sanctions in infringement proceedings

Summary:

Communication adopted by the European Commission on 4 January 2023, concerning its approach to infringement proceedings and related financial sanctions.

Further information:

Under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), where the European Commission refers a Member State to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to fulfil an obligation under the Treaties, it may propose to the Court to impose financial sanctions on that Member State. The sanction may be composed of a lump sum payment and a daily penalty payment. The Commission proposes the amounts to the Court, but it is for the Court to determine the amounts that it considers appropriate to the circumstances and proportionate both o the breach that has been established and to the capacity to pay of the Member State concerned.

The possibility for the Court to impose financial sanctions on Member States - and for the Commission to request the imposition of such sanctions - dates back to the Maastricht Treaty. The Commission has, since 1996, published a number of communications and notes laying out its policy and the methodology it applies to the calculation of financial sanctions.

This Communication reviews all those Communications on financial sanctions adopted from 1996 to 2021. It replaces and subsumes their content, while updating them where necessary in the light of the most recent case-law of the Court. This Communication also applies in relation to the Euratom Treaty, insofar as its Article 106a makes Article 260 TFEU applicable to matters covered by that Treaty.

The text was published in the Official Journal on 4 January 2023.