Failure to transpose a european directive on matter concerning organic law Commentary on the Judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union of February 25, 2021. Case C-658/19

Abstract

The Court of Justice of the European Union orders the Kingdom of Spain to pay a lump sum and a daily penalty payment, pursuant to the provisions of article 260(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, for failing to transpose within its deadline the Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 27 April 2016, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. The Court thus upholds the appeal of the European Commission and dismisses the main argument of the Kingdom of Spain, which is that the requirement of an organic law and the prolonged duration of its caretaker government justify the delay in transposing this directive, and this should prevent the imposition of a lump sum and reduce the daily penalty payment sought by the Commission.