Opinion of Mr Advocate General Darmon

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. This application for a declaration that Italy has failed to fulfil its obligations presents few difficulties. The failure is established and, moreover, is not contested by the defendant State. Council Directives 77/101 and 79/372 and Commission Directives 79/797 and 80/510 concern the harmonization of national laws applicable to the marketing of animal feedingstuffs. The period for transposing those directives into national law expired on 1 January 1981 and the Member States were under a duty to inform the Commission forthwith of provisions adopted to that effect. The Italian Republic has not yet adopted legal provisions implementing the directives, as was confirmed by the representative at the hearing.

2. The Court has consistently held that: ‘The governments of the Member States participate in the preparatory work for directives and must therefore be in a position to prepare, within the period prescribed, the draft legislative provisions necessary for their implementation’ (judgments in Cases 136, 148, 149 and 151/81 of 12 October 1982). The transposition of directives in good time is mandatory. Since they concern the harmonization of national laws, any delay in adopting the laws or provisions necessary for their implementation constitutes a breach in the uniformity of application of Community law contrary to the fundamental rules laid down in Articles 5 and 189 of the EEC Treaty.

3. Consequently, I propose that the Court should declare that, by failing to adopt the necessary provisions for the implementation of the abovementioned directives by 1 January 1981, Italy has failed to fulfil its Community obligations.

1 Translated from the French.