EU Law Fundamental Principles of EU Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

EU Law Fundamental Principles of EU Law - Essay Example Therefore, the best way to describe what the decision in the Ratti case is principally about is option b); namely, that the Ratti decision is concerned with when EC Directives can be enforced in national courts. As highlighted above, the ECJ took it as given that Directives are enforceable in national courts as highlighted by the summary of the preliminary ruling in paragraph 1 where the ECJ asserted that â€Å"in cases in which the community authorities have, by means of Directive, placed members states under a duty to adopt a certain course of action, the effectiveness of such an act would be weakened if persons were prevented from relying on it in legal proceedings and national courts prevented from taking it into consideration†. However, in the Ratti decision, the ECJ were concerned with when EC directives can be enforced in national courts as the case involved two directives, with the deadline date for one of the directives not having passed for implementation. This case involved prosecution of Mr Ratti by the Italian Authorities for breaches of national law concerning product labelling and whilst Mr Ratti had complied with two Directives, the expiry for implementation of one had not passed and the court asserted he could only rely the Directive for which the implementation time period had expired provided it was unconditional and sufficiently precise, but not for the Directive whose time period hadn’t expired. In highlighting the right to rely on Directives in national courts, the ECJ asserted in the paragraph 1 summary that â€Å"consequently, a member state which has not adopted the implementing measures required by the Directive in the prescribed periods may not rely, as against individuals on its own failure to perform the obligations which the Directive entails†. Nevertheless, the ECJ highlight in the summary and in the grounds section (paragraphs 20-24) that to be relied on, the Directive must be sufficiently precise and unconditional. Moreover,