Opinion of Mr Advocate General Darmon

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. This case concerning the failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty relates to the failure of the Italian Republic to implement within the prescribed period, which expired on 31 July 1980, the Fourth Council Directive of 25 July 1978 (No 78/660/EEC) based on Article 54 (3) (g) of the Treaty on the annual accounts of certain types of companies. The directive was aimed principally at the coordination of national provisions concerning the presentation and content of annual accounts and annual reports, the valuation methods used therein and their publication in respect of certain companies with limited liability ... (first recital in the preamble) whether private or public (Article 1).

2. The Commission received no response from the Italian Government either to its letter (No SG (82) D/13781) of 19 October 1982 inviting the Government, in the absence of any communication from it concerning the adoption of the directive into national law, to submit its observations on the matter to the Commission, or to the reasoned opinion it issued on 14 June 1984 requesting the Italian Government to adopt the measures necessary to comply with the opinion within a period of two months. Having thus complied with the preliminary procedure laid down in Article 169 of the Treaty, the Commission brought this action on 21 January 1985.

3. The Court then asked the Commission to inform it of the measures which had been adopted by the Member States to implement the directive, indicating the dates on which the measures were adopted, and it asked the Italian Government to inform it of the stage actually reached in the procedure for implementing the directive referred to in its defence.

4. The number of actions which have been brought by the Commission regarding the adoption into national law of the directive in question, and the fact that no Member State was able to comply with the time-limit laid down therefor, are evidence of the difficulty which has been experienced in implementing provisions relating to highly technical subject-matter, affecting a particularly vital area of economic life in which commercial companies play a leading rôle.

5. In conclusion I suggest that the Court

1 Translated from the French.