Mr. Declan Smyth:

We are very much in a political process at present. The question then of taking action against an institution is regulated by the treaties and there are very short timeframes within which to do that. In this case, it would be something called an action for failure to act. A formal request to act would then have to be made to the institution concerned, which, in this case, would be the Commission. The case law is not terribly favourable to member states in that respect. The requested action is not necessarily the action that the institution needs to take. It just needs to demonstrate, at least according to the court's case law, that it has considered the request and taken what it regarded as the appropriate action. That has to be done within a limited timeframe. Generally, so long as the institution - the Commission in this case - can demonstrate that it has considered the request and taken what it regards as the appropriate action, which is rarely the action requested by the member state, it will not be found by the court to have infringed the treaties for failing to act.