Infringement procedures are an essential tool to ensure that EU law be respected and implemented effectively.

Whereby the European Commission deems that a Member State has failed to fulfill an obligation under EU law, the European Commission may initiate an infringement procedure.

The infringement may lie in failing to implement EU rules or in adopting a national provision or an administrative practice that is inconsistent therewith.

The state of infringement procedures and, more generally, of litigations involving Italy has been extremely severe for a few years; yet, the situation has significantly improved most recently.