The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - 2009
The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC –
Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice 2009
Organized for the first time in 2009, the course “The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” was the result of a partnership between the European Institute of Romania and the European Institute of Public Administration, Luxembourg Antenna. Through this training programme, the organizers aimed to respond to public administration’s representatives’ need to understand and to be able to thoroughly enforce the infringement procedure and the legal defense mechanisms available to any Member State.
The infringement procedure – articoles 226 – 228 of the TEC – is a control mechanism the European Commission can use against the Member States when it finds that a state does not fulfill the obligations assumed through the Accession Treaties and the successive regulations.
In the Romanian case, the infringement procedure has been invoked on several occasions, the most famous being the ones regarding the first registration tax on cars, the absence of a single emergency telephone number or the malfunctioning of the waste management. Given that Community law is being enforced at the central and the local level, these examples illustrate how important it is for the authorities acting at both the central and the local layers of government to correctly understand the infringement procedure.
Beneficiaries
The training course “The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” brought together a group of 15 participants representing both central and local public administration institutions, such as: the Ministry of Communication and Information Society, the Ministry for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment, the Department for European Affairs, the Insurance Supervisory Commission, the National Commission for Nuclear Activity Control, Bucharest City Council, Dâmboviţa County Council.
Objectives
“The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” training course was intended for public administration’s specialists with responsibilities regarding the enforcement of Community law and the representation of Romania before the European courts. Therefore, the training programme was developed in order to clarify and bring structure to the most important elements for the correct understanding of the infringement procedure and of the strategies which can be used in order to respond to it.
In the light of its purpose, the training course offered its participants the knowledge and the abilities necessary for:
-understanding the role of the European Commission in the infringement procedure
-recognizing and assimilating the phases of the infringement mechanism
-getting acquainted with the case law of the European Court of Justice
-developing the abilities to answer the infringement procedure
Timetable
“The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” training course took place between the 14th -15th of May 2009.
English was the working language throughout the training sessions of the programme. For this reason, all the course participants had to have a good command of the English language.
Details about the content of the programme
Having as its main purpose to offer the participants all the tools necessary in getting acquainted with the infringement procedure, the training course covered the following major themes:
- the phases of the infringement procedure (letter of formal notice, reasoned opinion, litigation phase, decision of the ECJ and its effects)
- the defense strategies to be used before the ECJ
- the case-law of the ECJ in the field of the infringement procedure
As regards the training methods, the programme’s sessions benefited from an interactive approach which involved a wide range of training tools, including presentations, case studies and workshops. Also, question and answers (Q&A) sessions were organized at the end of the training modules.
The expertise and the multi-national experience of the EIPA trainers, including members of the European Commission, as well as the use of the case studies played a crucial role in facilitating the acquisition of competences by the course participants. During the two day session, the trainers were:
- Carla BOTELHO, senior trainer, Euopean Centre for Judges and Lawyers, EIPA, Antenna Luxembourg
- Marc CLÉMENT, General Directorate Environment, Eurpean Commission - Infringement Unit
- Jean-Baptiste LAIGNELOT – Legal Service of the European Commission.
At the end of the training course a participation certificate was issued by EIR and EIPA.
Feedback from participants
At the end of its sessions, “The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” training course was assessed by the participants. The anonymous assessment was based on an opinion poll, comprising both closed questions to which the participants were asked to give grades (from 1 to 5) for the modules’ content, the presentation method, the themes’ relevance, and the time management, and open questions which asked for suggestions and comments from the participants.
Following the centralization of the opinion poll results, the following observations can be made:
- an average of 87.81% of the participants graded with 5 the content of the sessions. “Possible defense strategies of the Member States”, “Sanctions for the infringement of the ECJ rulling” and the case studies on the infringement procedure were among the sessions assessed by 100% of the participants with 5.
- 93% of the beneficiaries assessed the presentation method with the maximum grade.
- the time allocated to the presentations, the case-studies and the discussions was estimated as being sufficient by 86% of the beneficiaries.
As regards participants’ suggestions, it is worthwhile mentioning their wish to substantiate their understanding and knowledge of the matter with more case-studies.
Organizers
The training programme “The Infringement Procedure under Article 226 TEC - Legal Analysis and Screening of Cases of the European Court of Justice” was organized by the European Institute of Romania in partnership with the European Institute of Public Administration, Luxembourg Antenna. The course was held at the EIR headquarters in Bucharest, 7-9 Regina Elisabeta bldv, conference room.
The coordinator for this training programme was Laurenţia Mariana Mereuţă, laurentia.mereuta@ier.ro.
