the Law court of the EU fine Spain in order to have been late to liberalize the field of the harbour services



At the end last month, after long negotiations interrupted and then restarted and intramezzate by a series of protests that have slowed down and sometimes blocked the job on the docks of the Spanish ports, the unions that represent the Spanish harbour workers and the ANESCO, the association that the majority of national the harbour terminalisti represents, have reached an agreement that has placed fine to strikes ( on 29 June 2017).

The fuse that had primed the contrasts between the parts had been a sentence of the Law court of the EU pronounced at the end of 2014 with which it was assessed that Spain had failed to the obligations relatively to the principle of freedom of plant defined from the Treaty on the operation of the Union as the Spanish legislation imposed to the enterprises of other Member States that intended to exercise activity of cargo handling in the Spanish ports on one side to record itself near a limited company that manage the harbour workers - that is the SAGEP (Sociedad Anónima de Gestión de Estibadores Portuarios), the societies instituted from the Spanish norm that they have scope to manage the put on one of own shareholders of the harbour workers - let alone, eventually, to participate to the capital of these societies, and, from the other, to assume with which put on working priorities from such societies, a minimal part of which is employed permanently ( on 12 December 2014).

By then the attempts of the Spanish governments to modify the national legislation in harbour matter in order to adapt it to the European norms and to avoid to incur in endorsements they were contrasted by the labor organizations, attempts that have at last lead to the launch of regal bill 8/2017 12th May, that it has taken effect on 14 May and that has modified the norms on the harbour job, provision that has riattizzato the confrontation and has provoked to new protests and strikes concluded at last with the agreement 29th june.

If the regal bill has allowed with Spain to avoid to incur in heavy endorsements for nonperformance in matter of liberalization of the field of the harbour services, the risk however is not completely asked for since yesterday the Law court of the European Union has confirmed the nonperformance of Spain and has comminato a flat-rate million fine three euro.

This sentence, moreover, does not contest that Spain has adempiuto to own obligations and it has made it own adopting the bill last May. It contests instead that Madrid has employed too much time in order to modify own legislation in harbour matter adapting it to the norms EU.

The term within which Spain it would have had to adopt the provisions necessary in order to comply to the sentence of 2014 had expired on September 20, 2015, and at the beginning of the 2016 EU commission it had decided to propose according to resource against Spain dinanzi to the Law court for nonperformance and in order to ask the imposition for pecuniary endorsements ( on 28 April 2016).

If as a result of the adoption of regal bill 8/2017 the EU commission had considered that so making Spain it had by now adopted all the necessary provisions to the execution of the sentence of 2014, Brussels - also renounced to its resource in the regarding part the penalty - however had maintained the resource regarding the payment of a lump sum distribution

With the sentence yesterday the Law court of the European Union therefore has assessed that Spain had not adopted, once passed the fixed term from the necessary Commission, provisions to the execution of the sentence of 2014 and, also considering that to Spain has demonstrated its good faith, in particular closely collaborating with the EU commission during the procedure prelitigation, the Court has found that the nonperformance contested them has been extended for a period of meaningful time, being passed 29 months between the date of the sentence of the 2014 and effectiveness of the normative new that has returned the national legislation to the device consistent of such sentence.

Moreover the Court has considered that the nonperformance must be considered serious as the plant freedom has prejudiced that constitutes one of the fundamental principles of the home market. From here the decision to condemn Spain to pour to the budget of the EU a lump sum distribution of three million euro.