The European Union’s Court of Justice has ordered Spain to pay a punitive fine of €3 million ($3.4 million) for failing to liberalize its heavily-unionized stevedore sector of the country’s port industry within a deadline set by the European Commission.
The Court originally ruled that Spain had failed to fulfill its obligations to de-monopolize the industry in 2014, and when new legislation was not drawn up in time to meet a September 2015 deadline, the Commission lodged a second case in 2016, with the Spanish government eventually passing new laws in May 2017.
“The Court finds that, although Spain has demonstrated its good faith, in particular by cooperating closely with the Commission during the pre-litigation procedure, the failure to fulfill obligations alleged against it continued for a significant length of time,” said a statement from the EU court.
“Spain had not, by the deadline set by the Commission, taken the measures necessary to ensure compliance with the 2014 judgment,” it continued, adding that the court considered it appropriate in those circumstance to order Spain to pay a lump sum of 3 million euros into the EU budget.
Sources from Spain’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport told the Spanish news agency EFE that the judgment had actually reduced Spain’s fine by 21 million euros, considering that the daily amount it was ordered to pay for failing to pass legislation since 2014 amounted to around 24 million euros.
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