Last week we reported that Portugal has issued a consultation paper on the implementation of the EU Reinsurance Directive (see the post here). The transposition deadline was 10 December 2007. Portugal is one of four member states to receive a letter of formal notice from the Commission in relation to its failure to implement the Directive, the others being the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Poland.
The letter of formal notice represents the first stage in the pre-litigation procedure, during which the Commission requests a Member State to submit its observations on an identified problem regarding the application of Community law. In addition, the Commission has now sent all four member states a reasoned opinion, the purpose of which is to set out the Commission’s position on the infringement, to determine the subject matter of any action and to request the member state to comply within a given time limit.
