Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fourth Chamber)

10 November 2005 (*)

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Directive 2001/16/EC - Trans-European Networks - Interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system - Failure to transpose within the period prescribed)

In Case C-385/04,

ACTION under Article 226 EC for failure to fulfil obligations, brought on 7 September 2004,

Commission of the European Communities, represented by W. Wils, acting as Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg,

applicant,

v

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by C. White, acting as Agent,

defendant,

THE COURT (Fourth Chamber),

composed of K. Schiemann, President of the Chamber, K. Lenaerts and E. Levits (Rapporteur), Judges,

Advocate General: L.A. Geelhoed,

Registrar: R. Grass,

having regard to the written procedure,

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

Judgment

1 By its application, the Commission of the European Communities requests the Court to declare that, by failing to adopt all the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system (OJ 2001 L 110, p. 1), or in any event by failing to notify those provisions to it, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive.

2 Under Article 27(1) of Directive 2001/16 Member States are required to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with it by 20 April 2003 at the latest, with the exception of the provisions specific to each technical specification for interoperability (TSI) which are to be implemented in accordance with the arrangements specific to each TSI, and to forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

3 Not having received any information about the provisions adopted to ensure transposition of Directive 2001/16 into United Kingdom law within the period prescribed therein, the Commission instituted the present proceedings for failure to fulfil obligations. After having given that Member State formal notice to submit its observations, the Commission delivered, on 17 October 2003, a reasoned opinion calling on it to adopt the measures necessary to comply with the directive within two months of its notification.

4 In their replies to the letter of formal notice and the reasoned opinion, dated 11 July and 11 December 2003 respectively, the United Kingdom authorities acknowledged that, although they did notify the list of the standards and technical specifications in use in order to implement the essential requirements, as provided for by Directive 2001/16, they had not adopted any other measures to transpose the Directive.

5 The Commission therefore decided to bring the present action.

6 In its defence lodged on 21 October 2004, the United Kingdom admits that Directive 2001/16 was not transposed within the prescribed period and submits that the timetable for carrying out that transposition was delayed in order to take into account the responses gained from the public consultation which ended in April 2004.

7 It must be remembered that, according to settled case-law, the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation obtaining in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion (see Case C-323/01 Commission v Italy [2002] ECR I-4711, paragraph 8).

8 In the present case, it is common ground that the measures intended to ensure transposition of Directive 2001/16 into United Kingdom law were not adopted before that period expired.

9 The Commission-™s application must thus be held to be well founded.

10 Consequently, it must be held that, by failing to adopt within the period prescribed all the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2001/16, the United Kingdom has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive.

Costs

11 Under Article 69(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs if they have been applied for in the successful party-™s pleadings. Since the Commission has applied for costs and the United Kingdom has been unsuccessful, the latter must be ordered to pay the costs.

On those grounds, the Court (Fourth Chamber) hereby:

1. Declares that, by failing to adopt within the period prescribed all the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive;

2. Orders the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to pay the costs.

[Signatures]

* Language of the case: English.