The European Court of Justice has imposed a daily fine of €5,000 ($5,613) on Belgium for failing to properly implement EU law governing high-speed electronic communications networks. The court found that Belgium has been slow to roll out high-speed broadband in its capital, which is home to EU institutions such as the European Commission and European Parliament.

Belgium will have to pay the fine until it fully implements the law, which sets out minimum requirements for physical infrastructure needs for internet and telephony services.

This marks the first time the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice has applied a legal provision introduced by the EU's Lisbon treaty, which came into force in 2009.

The case stems from a 2014 directive on the rollout of high-speed electronic communications that EU countries were required to transpose into national law by January 2016. The directive established minimum requirements for civil engineering works and physical infrastructure.

The Commission found that the Belgian government had failed to properly implement the directive and imposed a daily fine of €55,000. The fine was subsequently reduced to €6,000 because the government had made progress implementing the directive.

The shortcomings apply to the Brussels-Capital region, one of Belgium's three administrative regions.

Under EU law, member states have to transpose directives into national law.

The European Court of Justice based its decision to impose a fine on the Belgian government on Article 260 of the Lisbon treaty, which provides for stronger measures to sanction member states that fail to comply with EU law. The article speeds up the process for fining a member state, in an attempt to ensure faster compliance with EU law.

Before this article took effect, fines could only be applied several years after the initial judgment.