[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website; BBC backgrounder] found that Greece failed to implement or comply with EU directives in twenty cases in 2005, the most of all European Union [official website] member states, according to statistics [press release, PDF] released Monday by the court. Greece was followed closely by Luxembourg, France, Germany, and Italy, while Sweden boasted the least amount of offenses. The statistics showed a pattern similar to recent years.

Meanwhile, judges in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands referred the most cases to the court asking for interpretations of EU law [ECJ jurisdiction backgrounder]. The court has also seen a 12 percent decrease in pending cases in 2005, with the court completing more cases than it has received for the second year in a row. The ECJ has also reported a larger number of fiscal and social cases rather than the traditional economy-based case load which dealt typically with agriculture and consumer protection concerns. The EUObserver has more.