Press Release: Commission decides to refer France to Court for a second time for non-compliance with Court judgment on British beef

Under the EU Treaty a Member State is obliged to implement a judgment of the European Court of Justice. On 13 December 2001, the Court declared France's refusal to lift its ban on British beef unlawful. Thus, France was obliged to implement the relevant EU rules and to allow the resumption of imports of correctly marked or labelled British beef and products to France. France has failed to comply with this ruling and the Commission therefore decided on 17 July 2002 to refer France to the European Court of Justice for a second time, in order to enforce the judgement given by the Court. The Commission also decided to request the Court to impose a penalty payment of €158,250 per day on France, should the case not be settled before the judgment of the Court. The penalty would apply to each day of non-compliance with the second judgment of the Court.

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