Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Preliminary rulings ° Jurisdiction of the Court ° Limits ° International agreement not binding on the Community ° Excluded

2. Freedom to provide services ° Community rules ° Whether a trader from a Member State may rely on them against that State by reason of his activity of providing services to another Member State

(EEC Treaty, Art. 59; Council Regulation No 4055/86, Art. 1(1))

3. Freedom to provide services ° Principle of non-discrimination ° Scope ° Restrictions ° Concept ° Disadvantages ensuing for a provider of services from being subjected to particularly constraining requirements in force in his place of establishment ° Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 59; Council Regulation No 4055/86, Art. 9)

4. Transport ° Maritime transport ° Free movement of goods ° Workers ° Freedom of establishment ° Freedom to provide services ° Environment ° National legislation prohibiting in State waters all vessels and on the high seas only vessels flying the national flag from discharging harmful chemical substances and penalizing infringements by masters of vessels who are nationals of the enacting State by suspending their professional qualification ° Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Arts 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r; Council Regulation No 4055/86)

Summary

1. The Court may not rule on the question whether legislation of a Member State is compatible with an international agreement, such as the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, called "the Marpol Convention", if the Community is not party to that agreement and it does not appear that the Community has assumed, under the Treaty, the powers previously exercised by the Member States in the field to which the agreement applies or that its provisions have the effect of binding the Community.

2. Since Article 59 of the Treaty must apply in all cases in which a provider of services offers services on the territory of a Member State other than that in which he is established and Article 1(1) of Regulation No 4055/86 lays down that freedom to provide maritime transport services between Member States and between Member States and third countries is to apply in respect of nationals of Member States who are established in a Member State other than that of the person for whom the services are intended, a maritime carrier who carries goods to other Member States may rely, as against the Member State in which he is established and whose flag his vessels fly, on an infringement of the freedom to provide maritime transport services recognized by Community law.

However, as regards the complaints he may assert against it, his situation is different from that of a carrier established in another Member State who, when providing services, must therefore satisfy simultaneously the requirements imposed by two Member States, that whose flag his vessels fly and that in which he intends temporarily to exercise his activity.

3. Since the difference in treatment applied by a body of national legislation between national maritime carriers and those from other Member States is due to the fact that the jurisdiction which may be exercised over the first, by virtue of the law of the flag, is not the same as that which may be exercised over the second, which is limited to that which may be exercised by a State in the waters over which it has jurisdiction, no discrimination prohibited by Article 9 of Regulation No 4055/86, applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport between Member States and between Member States and third countries, exists. At all events, the application of a body of national legislation cannot be regarded as contrary to the principle of non-discrimination solely because other Member States apply less strict provisions.

Moreover, where national legislation does not make a distinction between vessels according to whether they carry goods internally or to other Member States, does not make any distinction regarding services for exported products and for products marketed nationally and does not afford any particular advantages to the domestic market, to national transport operations or to national products, that legislation cannot be regarded as restricting freedom to provide services to other Member States, which is prohibited by the aforesaid regulation.

The indirect advantages which carriers from other Member States may derive from the fact that they are subject to less strict requirements are merely the consequence of the absence of harmonization of national laws to which the various providers of services in the various Member States in which they are established are subject.

4. Articles 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r of the Treaty and Regulation No 4055/86, applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport between Member States and between Member States and third countries, do not preclude the legislation of a Member State from prohibiting all vessels, regardless of the flag which they fly, from discharging harmful chemical substances into its territorial waters and its internal waters, or from imposing the same prohibition on the high seas only on vessels flying the national flag, or, finally, in the event of infringement, from penalizing masters of vessels who are nationals of that State by suspending their professional qualification.