Opinion of mr advocate general mayras

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

This case brought against Italy for a failure to fulfil its obligations is not without close analogies with other similar cases which the Court has judged in the past. Perhaps I may be permitted therefore to give a relatively brief opinion.

I —. The Commission charges the Italian Republic with not fulfilling its Community obligations by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the measures needed to implement under national law the provisions of Council Directive No 75/410/EEC of 24 June 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to continuous totalizing weighing-machines. These are automatic weighing instruments designed to determine the mass of a product in bulk without systematic subdivision, the movement of the belt being uninterrupted.

II —. The Court is familiar with the legal problems posed by this kind of situation. There already exists, as Mr. Advocate General Reischl has emphasized in his opinion in Case 100/77 (judgment of 11 April 1978, Commission v Italy [1978] ECR 879 and particularly at p. (891), a clear and exhaustive body of decisions of the Court with regard to the implementation of directives within the prescribed period. May I remind the Court of the judgments delivered on this matter in Cases 79/72 (Commission v Italian Republic, judgment of 21 June 1973, [1973] ECR 667), 52/75 (Commission v Italian Republic, judgment of 26 February 1976 [1976] ECR 277), 10/76 (Commission v Italian Republic, judgment of 22 September 1976, [1976] ECR 1359). To those judgments cited by Mr Advocate General Reischl must now be added the judgment of 11 April 1978 in Case 100/77 (quoted above) and the judgment of 22 February 1979 in Case 163/78 (Commission v Italian Republic [1979] ECR 771).

In these circumstances I can only invite the Court to adopt the declaration sought by the Commission, namely, that by failing to put into force within the prescribed period the provisions necessary in order to comply with Council Directive No 75/410/EEC of 24 June 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to continuous totalizing weighing machines, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive. Furthermore, the Italian Republic should clearly be ordered to pay the costs.

1 Translated from the French