Case C-348/01: Action brought on 17 September 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities against the French Republic
Date: 2001-11-24
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, France, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, environmental protection, industrial project, project evaluation

C 331/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

24.11.2001

Action brought on 17 September 2001 by the Com-
mission of the European Communities against the French
Republic

before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on
21 September 2001 by the Italian Republic, represented by
Umberto Leanza, acting as Agent, assisted by Gianni De Bellis,
Avvocato dello Stato.

(Case C-348/01)

(2001/C 331/15)

An action against the French Republic was brought before the
Court of Justice of the European Communities on 17 Septem-
ber 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities
represented by G. zur Hausen and J. Adda, acting as Agents,
with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission of the European Communities claims that
the Court should:

1. Declare that by not yet having adopted all the laws,
regulations and administrative provisions necessary in
order to comply with Council Directive 97/11/EC of
3 March 1997 amending Directive 85/337/EEC on the
assessment of the effects of certain public and private
projects on the environment (1) or at least by not having
informed the Commission fully thereof,
the French
Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that
Directive.

2. Order the French Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul Article 1 of Commission Regulation (EC)
No 1263/2001 of 27 June 2001 fixing the derived
intervention prices for white sugar for the 2001/02
marketing year (OJ 2001 L 178, p. 60), in so far as it fails
to fix derived intervention prices for white sugar for all
the areas of Italy and, in so far as necessary, annul also
Article 2(1)(a) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001
of 19 June 2001,

— order the Commission of the European Communities and
the Council of the European Union to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

in
The Italian Government claims that
determining the internal consumption of sugar to be balanced
against production in order to ascertain whether or not there
is a deficit, used an unlawful and erroneous determinative
criterion.

the Commission,

The pleas in law and main arguments are the same as those in
Case C-345/01 (2); the deadline for transposition expired on
14 March 1999.

In particular, when forecasting consumption,
it did not
include sugar used for the preparation of sugar-based products
intended for export.

(1) OJ L 73 of 14.3.1997, p. 5.
(2) See p. 8 of this Official Journal.

Italy will therefore find itself having to import white sugar in
the 2001/02 marketing year,
like any other country in a
situation which is hypothetically similar save for the fact that
it consumes internally all sugar-based products, whereas Italy
instead exports them.

Action brought on 21 September 2001 by the Italian
Republic against Commission of the European Communi-
ties and Council of the European Union

According to the Commission’s criterion, such other country
would be considered in deficit, whereas Italy would not,
despite the fact that both countries have the same sugar import
requirement.

(Case C-360/01)

(2001/C 331/16)

Such a result is unfair and runs counter to the scope and
purpose of ‘regionalisation’.

An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties and the Council of the European Union was brought