2022 Annual Report on monitoring the application of EU law

Every year, the Commission publishes a report on monitoring the application of EU law during the preceding year. The report reviews key aspects of the application of EU law by Member States and the Commission’s actions to enforce it in 2022. The main report sets out the Commission’s most important investigations and infringement procedures under the Commission’s political priorities. This webpage presents infringement cases, EU Pilot processes and complaints by policy area and Member State, over a five-year period. Dedicated pages on policy areas provide information on how the Commission promoted compliance in these fields and refer to key judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Member States pages publish more specific information on the individual country concerned.

 

Infringements

New infringement cases (2018 - 2022)

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By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of the new infringement cases in the selected year per policy area and per type of infringement.

Infringement cases open at year-end (2018 - 2022)

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By clicking on the above multi-lever chart, you can consult the number of infringement cases open at the end of the selected year per policy area an per type of infringement

Evolution of infringement cases

The above chart shows the number of cases that were new, closed or remained open at year-end for the period 2018-2022. By clicking on the drop-down menu, you can select a policy area.

Type of new infringements cases per Member State and the UK

Type of infringement cases open at year-end per Member State and the UK

Closed infringement cases depending on procedural stage

The Commission seeks to resolve breaches of EU law as fast as possible. People and businesses will enjoy the benefits of EU law earlier if an infringement case is settled at an early stage, without having to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In 2022, the Commission closed 489 infringement cases. In 96% of the cases, the procedure could be closed without having to decide a referral to Court. More specifically, the Commission closed the infringement cases at the following stages:

• 354 cases after the sending of a letter of formal notice under Article 258 TFEU;
• 116 cases after the sending of a reasoned opinion;
• 8 cases after deciding to refer the case to the Court but before submitting the application;
• 9 cases following a Court judgment (including one case after a second Court ruling under Article 260 TFEU);
• 2 cases had been withdrawn from the Court before the latter handed down its ruling. The Commission withdrew these cases as the Member States concerned had taken the necessary measures to comply with EU law.

Referrals to Court and judgments of the Court

In 2022, the Commission took the decision of referring a total of 35 cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union. All these cases were referred to the Court for the first time, under Article 258 TFEU (18 cases) or under Articles 258 and 260(3) (17 cases).

Under Article 260(3) TFEU, the Commission may propose financial penalties even when it refers a case for the first time to the Court. The Commission decided to request the Court to impose financial sanctions in all 17 cases with a referral decision under this article (more information on the different steps of an infringement procedure here).

After it decides to refer a case, the Commission prepares and submits the application to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In 2022, the Commission submitted 35 cases to the Court (including cases for which a referral decision had been taken before 2022).

In 2022, the Court issued 18 judgments under Article 258 TFEU and one judgment under Article 260(2) TFEU. In the latter case, the Court imposed financial sanctions against Greece.

17 judgments were in the Commission’s favour while in two  cases concerning Poland the Court dismissed the Commission’s action. The following Member States were subject to infringement Court judgments in 2022:

• Spain (3);
• Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland and Slovakia (2 each);
• Belgium, Denmark, Greece, France, Italy, Austria and Portugal (1 each).

There was also one judgment against the United Kingdom.

Member States are required to take all the measures needed to comply with a Court judgment promptly. However, this does not always happen. At the end of 2022, 84 infringement procedures under Article 258 TFEU and 16 infringement procedures under Article 260(2) TFEU were still open after a Court ruling because the Commission considered that the Member States had not yet complied with the judgments.

Open infringement cases after a ruling of the Court of Justice per Member State

By clicking on the above multi-level chart, you can consult the policy areas of the open infringement cases after a judgment of the Court of Justice concerning the selected Member State.

 

Transposition of directives

There are 42 directives that had a transposition deadline in 2022. This is less than in 2021 (55). The average period within which Member States had to transpose a directive with deadline in 2022 was 14.5 months. This is shorter compared to 2021 (22.4 months). Transposition deadlines are set by the legislators when they adopt a directive and might vary depending on the type of directives at stake. For instance, delegated and implementing directives may have shorter transposition deadlines than directives adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure.

New late transposition cases (2018 - 2022)

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By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of the new late transposition cases in 2022 per policy area and per sector within that policy area.

Late transposition cases in 2022 per Member State and UK

 

EU Pilot

The pre-infringement process ‘EU Pilot’ is a tool the Commission uses where it is likely to lead to swifter compliance than a formal infringement procedure. It allows the Commission to resolve a number of cases at the EU Pilot stage without the need to move to an infringement procedure. It can also prove useful in cases where the Commission wishes to collect factual or legal information needed to carry out its assessment.

New EU Pilot cases (2018 - 2022)

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By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of the new EU Pilot cases in 2022 per policy area and per policy sector.

Evolution of EU Pilot cases

The above chart shows the number of EU Pilot cases that were new, closed or remained open at year-end for the period 2018-2022. By clicking on the drop-down menu, you can select a policy area.

The Commission opened 279 EU Pilot cases in 2022. Of these, 51 were triggered by complaints and 228 were opened by the Commission following own-initiative investigations.

The Commission closed 215 EU Pilot cases in 2022 of which 160 after receiving satisfactory answers from the Member States concerned. This gives a resolution rate of 74%, which is lower than the 2021 level (81%). Instead, for 46 cases, the EU Pilot process was closed with a proposal to pursue the issue further by means of an infringement procedure. 9 of these cases were based on complaints.

The policy areas with the most EU Pilot cases proposed to be followed up by formal infringement procedures are energy (12 cases), internal market (9 cases), environment (7 cases), and migration and home affairs (7 cases).

EU Pilot cases open at year-end 2022 per Member State

By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of EU Pilot cases open at the end of 2022 per policy area for the selected Member State.

 

Complaints

New complaints (2018 - 2022)

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By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of the new complaints in 2022 per policy area and per policy sector.

Evolution of complaints

The above chart shows the number of complaints that were new, handled or remained open at year-end for the period 2018-2022. By clicking on the drop-down menu, you can select a policy area.

Complaints handled in 2022

By clicking on this interactive multi-level chart, you can consult the distribution of the complaints handled in 2022 per policy area.

The Commission handled 3 615 potential complaints in 2022. A large number of incoming correspondence, qualified by persons and bodies as complaints, did not meet the formal criteria of a complaint and were replied to under the Commission’s Code of Good Administrative Behaviour (951).

The Commission assessed 2 254 complaints and either did not identify any breach of EU law or did identify a potential breach that is, in principle, not investigated by the Commission according to the strategic approach of enforcement as laid down in the 2016 Communication ‘EU law: Better results through better application’.

For example, a complaint on an individual case of misapplication of EU law where there are insufficient indications of a general practice or systemic failure of compliance with EU law. Means to redress the issue are accessible to the complainant through national redress mechanisms. Specific investigations by the Commission are therefore not needed.

The Commission pursued 170 complaints by investigating them in the pre-infringement process ‘EU Pilot’ or through an infringement procedure. This is an increase compared to 2021 (117). This means that the Commission pursued 4.7% of (potential) complaints further with investigations in 2022.

179 complaints were closed as they were duplicates of existing complaints, and 58 complaints were withdrawn (either by complainants or because the complaint form was not received). The Commission also transferred 3 complaints to SOLVIT.

The Commission, in 2022, registered three so-called multiple complaints. A multiple complaint is a way the Commission may handle many individual complaints on the same or similar matter against the same Member States. The Commission registers all complaints under one registry number and substitutes individual correspondence with complaints with public notices on Europa webpage. A multiple complaint is counted as one in the above statistics. These multiple complaints concerned:

• an alleged breach by Italy of general principles of EU law and fundamental rights relating to the state of emergency and other measures (409 individual complaints),
• an alleged breach by Lithuania of EU rules on occupational health and safety (450 individual complaints),
• an alleged breach by France of EU rules in matters of succession (22 individual complaints).

Complaints leading to investigations in EU Pilot or infringements per topic (Top 10)

The Member States most concerned by the 170 complaints that were followed up with an EU Pilot process and infringement procedure are:

• Sweden (34);
• France (25) ;
• Italy (21);
• Spain (14);
• Bulgaria (13).

Should infringement procedures that are based on, or informed by, complaints not resolve the breach of EU law at the pre-litigation stage, the Commission does not hesitate to refer a Member State to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In 2022, the Commission took one decision to refer a Member State to the Court in a case that originated from a complaint. It concerned the incorrect transposition by Portugal of EU rules on the recognition of professional qualifications.

 

Average time for handling cases

The above chart shows the average time in weeks needed before taking a decision to close complaints, EU Pilot cases and infringement cases. Certain EU Pilot cases or complaints are potentially counted more than once (e.g. if an initial complaint is transferred to an EU Pilot or infringement case).

 

More information on infringement cases by policy area

 

Member States

 

Methodology

This report sets out the Commission’s actions to monitor and enforce EU law during 2022. The state of play of infringement cases mentioned may have evolved since then.

The annual report’s policy areas correspond to the Commission’s Directorates-General (DGs). Some broader topics may be covered by different DGs, for instance single market infringements may be based on legislation covering the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital across borders within the EU, but also taxation, employment, culture, social policy, education, public health, energy, consumer protection, transport, environment (except nature protection), and the information society and media. Single market infringements are therefore counted in the annual report under these more specific policy areas.

There might be changes in the figures over time for a certain policy area as cases may be transferred for handling from one policy area to another. There should be no such inconsistencies for overall figures across all policy areas.

Reference to ‘complaints’ in this report includes incoming correspondence qualified by senders as a complaint even though it does not satisfy the conditions set out in point 3 of the Annex on administrative procedures for the handling of relations with the complainant regarding the application of European Union law to the Communication ‘EU law: Better results through better application’. Furthermore, reference to ‘complaints’ includes so-called ‘multiple complaints’, where the Commission, under one complaint file (registration entry), handles sometimes a very large number of individual complaints. As regards the number of complaints, in some instances, a difference compared to the figures from the preceding annual report may be due to delayed, double or erroneous registration at the moment of extracting the statistical data.

 

Information about the United Kingdom

On 1 February 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement setting out arrangements for the orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union entered into force and the United Kingdom became formally a third country. The transition period set by the Withdrawal Agreement ended on 31 December 2020. In accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the Commission may continue to pursue existing infringement cases and open new cases against the United Kingdom for infringements of EU law that occurred before the end of the transition period, or for breaches of certain provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement or of the Protocols on Ireland and Northern Ireland and on the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. Therefore, cases concerning the United Kingdom are included in the overall statistics of this report.

Press release

Previous annual reports on monitoring the application of EU law