Case C-102/01: Action brought on 1 March 2001 by Italian Republic against Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2001-04-21
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, Italy, action for annulment (EU), infringement of EU law, national implementing measure, postal service

C 118/20

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

21.4.2001

Action brought on 1 March 2001 by Italian Republic
against Commission of the European Communities

3.

The contested decision is also invalid on the following
grounds:

(Case C-102/01)

(2001/C 118/32)

failure to define the relevant market; misuse of powers
by misrepresentation of the facts; infringement of the
directive on postal services; infringement and erroneous
application of Articles 82 and 86 of the Treaty; misuse of
powers in that the decision is general and indeterminate.

An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European
Communities on 1 March 2001 by the Italian Republic,
represented by Umberto Leanza, acting as Agent, assisted by
Ivo M. Braguglia and Francesca Quadri, avvocati dello Stato.

(1) Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of
the internal market of Community postal services and the
improvement of quality of service (OJ 1998 L 15, p. 14).

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul the decision of the Commission of the European
Communities of 21 December 2000, notified to the
Italian Government on 22 December 2000;

— order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

1.

The Italian Government claims that the Commission
committed a manifest error when choosing the proper
legal basis for assessing whether the national rules at issue
were compatible with Community law and that that
erroneous legal basis has led in the present case to a
manifest breach of essential procedural requirements and
‘détournement de procédure’ (abuse of process), inasmuch
as a proceeding pursuant to Article 86(3) of the Treaty
was instituted and a decision adopted, instead of infringe-
ment proceedings under Article 226 of the Treaty for
failure to implement correctly Directive 97/76/EC (1) on
postal services.

By acting in that way, the Commission has also infringed
Article 86(3) of the Treaty, which is not applicable in the
present case, as well as Article 226 of the Treaty for
failure to apply the latter.

The decision does not contain the least statement of
reasons which led the Commission to follow the pro-
cedure under Article 86, so that it is vitiated on the
ground of inadequate statement of reasons.

2.

The decision is vitiated for breach of the rights of the
defence in that the final decision is vitiated with regard to
the letter of formal notice.

Action brought on 2 March 2001 by the Commission of
the European Communities against the Federal Republic
of Germany

(Case C-103/01)

(2001/C 118/33)

An action against the Federal Republic of Germany was
brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communi-
ties on 2 March 2001 by the Commission of the European
Communities, represented by Josef Christian Schieferer, of its
Legal Service, with an address for service in Luxembourg at
the office of Carlos Go´ mez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service,
Wagner Centre C 254, Kirchberg.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

(1) declare that, by including in the legislation applicable
to individual Länder certain additional requirements
concerning personal protective equipment for fire brig-
ades which corresponds to the requirements of Directive
89/686/EEC (1) and bears the EC mark,
the Federal
Republic of Germany has infringed Articles 1 and 4 of
that directive;

(2) order the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs.