Case C-107/05, Commission v Finland

The ECJ gave judgement in the case of Commission v Finland (Case C-107/05) on 12 January 2006. Finland was held to be in breach of the Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading Directive (Directive 2003/87/EC) as had failed to transpose the Directive within its national legislation with regards to the province of Åland (Ahvenanmaa). The island province of Aland is situated between Sweden and Finland and enjoys local autonomy and demilitarized status by virtue of an international convention, implemented most recently by the Act on Aland Self-Government of 1951. While the islands are entirely Swedish-speaking, they remain governed by the Republic of Finland, with government being vested in the provincial council, consisting of delegates elected directly by Aland’s citizens.

As the Directive was due to have been transposed by Member States by 31 December 2003, the Republic of Finland admitted that transposition of the Directive in respect of the province of Åland had been delayed and therefore the action by the Commission was well founded.

The full text of the judgement is available in French and Finnish at the following link:

http://curia.eu.int/

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