Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea del 4/1/2023 - Comunicaciones e Informaciones
Text version What is this?Dateas is an independent website not affiliated with any government agency. The source of the PDF documents that we publish is the official agency stated in each of them. The text versions are non official transcripts that we do to provide better tools for accessing and searching information, but may contain errors or may not be complete.
Source: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea - Comunicaciones e Informaciones
4.1.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
II
Information
INFORMATION FROM EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS, BODIES, OFFICES
AND AGENCIES
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
Financial sanctions in infringement proceedings 2023/C 2/01
1.
INTRODUCTION DEVELOPING A PROPORTIONATE AND DISSUASIVE APPROACH
Under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union TFEU, where the Commission refers a Member State to the Court of Justice of the European Union the Court for failing to fulfil an obligation under the Treaties, it may propose to the Court to impose financial sanctions on that Member State in two situations:
where the Member State has not taken the necessary measures to comply with an earlier judgment of the Court finding an infringement of Union law Article 2602 TFEU 1, where the Member State has failed to fulfil its obligation to notify measures transposing a directive adopted under a legislative procedure Article 2603 TFEU.
In both cases, the sanction imposed by the Court may be composed of a lump sum payment, as a consequence of the continuation of the infringement until the delivery of its judgment or full compliance, if reached earlier, and a daily penalty payment, to prompt the Member State concerned to bring the infringement to an end as soon as possible after the delivery of the judgment. The Commission proposes the amounts for the financial sanctions to the Court, but it is for the Court, in the exercise of its discretion 2, to determine the amounts that it considers appropriate to the circumstances and proportionate both to the breach that has been established and to the capacity to pay of the Member State concerned 3.
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 of 1992. To ensure transparency and equal treatment, 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 4.
1 Or where the Member State has not taken the necessary measures to comply with a judgment finding an infringement of a State aid decision under Article 1082 TFEU.
2 This discretion is limited in the case of Article 2603 TFEU cases, where the Court cannot go beyond the amount specified by the Commission.
3 See judgments of 12 July 2005, Commission v France C-304/02, EU:C:2005:444, paragraph 103; of 14 March 2006, Commission v France C-177/04, EU:C:2006:173, paragraph 61; and of 10 January 2008, Commission v Portugal C-70/06, EU:C:2008:3, paragraph 38.
4 See Annex II List of previous communications on financial sanctions.
C 2/1
