Ireland is one of ten EU member states that the European Commission has referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) due to delays in transposing an EU directive into national law.

The other nine countries are Spain, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.

The commission said that it was acting against the ten as they had failed to inform the EU body about how, and when, they would transpose the EU Electronic Communications Code into national law.

Financial sanctions

The communications code is aimed at modernising telecoms rules, and had been due to be adopted in member states by 21 December 2020.

The commission had opened infringement procedures in February last year, and had sent reasoned opinions to 18 member states on 23 September.

Under article 260(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, if a member state fails to transpose an EU directive into national law within the required deadline, the commission may call on the CJEU to impose financial sanctions.