EN Official Journal of the European Union C 301/28

Action brought on 30 September 2008 — Commission of the European Communities v Republic of Poland

(Case C-435/08)

(2008/C 301/43)

Language of the case: Polish

Parties

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by K. Simonsson and M. Owsiany-Hornung, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Republic of Poland

Form of order sought

— declare that, by excluding all recreation craft from the scope of the regulation of the Minister for Infrastructure of 13 December 2002 on detailed conditions for the safety of navigation by marine vessels, which transposed into national law certain provisions of Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system and repealing Council Directive 93/75/EEC (1), and by adopting the provisions in paragraph 3.3 of the regulation of the Minister for Infrastructure of 12 May 2003 on the transmission of information by the owner of a vessel carrying dangerous or polluting cargo, which transposed into national law Article 13 of Directive 2002/59/EC and enables owners of vessels sailing from Polish ports, if at the time of leaving port the name of the port of destination or the anchorage is not known, not to transmit the general information concerning the vessel and information on its cargo (specified in Annex I(3) to Directive 2002/59/EC) until the time of fixing the vessel's route, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2 and 13 of that directive;

— order the Republic of Poland to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2 and 13 of Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system and repealing Council Directive 93/75/EEC.

The Republic of Poland has incorrectly implemented Article 2 of Directive 2002/59/EC, which excludes from its scope ‘fishing vessels, traditional ships and recreational craft with a length of less than 45 metres’.

Point 2 of paragraph 2.1 of the regulation of the Minister for Infrastructure of 13 December 2002 on detailed conditions for the safety of navigation by marine vessels, which transposed into national law certain provisions of the directive, goes further in this respect, excluding all recreational craft from its scope. The Commission considers that such a limitation of the scope of the directive is contrary to the provisions of Article 2.

The Republic of Poland has further failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13 of Directive 2002/59/EC. Article 13(1) of the directive lays down that the ‘operator, agent or master of a ship, irrespective of its size, carrying dangerous or polluting goods and leaving a port of a Member State shall, at the latest at the moment of departure, notify the information indicated in Annex I(3) to the competent authority designated by that Member State’.

A similar obligation is laid down by paragraph 3.1 of the regulation of the Minister for Infrastructure of 12 May 2003 on the transmission of information by the owner of a vessel carrying dangerous or polluting cargo. However, paragraph 3.3 of that regulation states that ‘if at the time of leaving port the name of the port of destination or the anchorage is not known, the information … is to be transmitted at the latest at the time of fixing the vessel's route’.

That possibility is not limited to the specific case mentioned in Article 13(2) of the directive (‘a ship … coming from a port located outside the Community and bound for a port of a Member State or an anchorage located in a Member State's territorial waters’). The divergence relating to the time of transmission of the information is in the Commission's view contrary to Article 13 of the directive.

(1) OJ L 208, 5.8.2002, p. 10.