ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the scope of the Member State's duty to implement a directive insofar as this has been elaborated by the Court of Justice. The first is that the penalty chosen must be effective in securing the performance of the obligations created by the directive. Provided these requirements are satisfied, the Court of Justice will be reluctant to criticise a Member State’s choice of penalties. A Member State is entitled, for example, to impose criminal sanctions for failing to comply with legislation intended to implement EC directives on waste, notwithstanding that other waste operators in other Member States may be subject to administrative, as opposed to criminal enforcement regimes. The existence and extent of a Member State’s discretion to impose more stringent requirements on its nationals than those specified in a directive depends on the wording of the directive itself.
