Opinion of the Advocate-General
1 In the present Treaty-infringement proceedings, the Commission claims that, by failing to adopt and/or notify the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings, (1) the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive and the EC Treaty.
2 Member States were required under Article 70(1) of that directive to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with it before 1 January 1994 and forthwith to inform the Commission thereof.
3 The defendant submits solely that Law No 146 of 22 February 1994 (2) provided for the transposition of the directive within one year of that Law's coming into force and that, after it had proved impossible to comply with that period, a further one-year period was laid down in Law No 52 of 6 February 1996 (3) following the entry into force of the 1996 Law. It states that the procedure for transposing the directive has in the meantime reached its concluding stages, since a corresponding draft has already been submitted to the Parliament.
4 Since the defendant does not therefore deny that it failed to transpose the directive within the prescribed period, it is unnecessary to examine the Commission's complaint regarding failure to notify it of the transposition measures adopted.
5 I accordingly propose that the Court rule that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive and the EC Treaty. I also propose that the Italian Republic be ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings.
(1) - OJ 1991 L 374, p. 7.
(2) - `Community Law 1993'.
(3) - `Community Law 1994' (sic).
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