Case C-425/01: Action brought on 26 October 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Portuguese Republic
Date: 2001-12-08
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, Portugal, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, occupational health, occupational safety, works council

8.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 348/21

Action brought on 23 October 2001 by the Commission
of the European Communities against the Kingdom of
Spain

identification cannot be considered valid as it does not meet
the conditions concerning safety and publication required by
Community case-law for the full implementation of directives.

(Case C-419/01)

(2001/C 348/37)

(1) OJ 1991 L 135, p. 40.

An action against the Kingdom of Spain was brought before
the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 23 Octo-
ber 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities,
represented by Gregorio Valero, of its Legal Service, acting as
Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office
of Luis Escobar Guerrero, also of its Legal Service, Wagner
Centre.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— Declare that, by having identified sensitive areas in respect
of only part of its territory, the Kingdom of Spain has
failed to fulfil
its obligations under Council Directive
91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-
water treatment (1),

— Order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Article 5(1) of Directive 91/271/EEC provides that Member
States were to identify, by 31 December 1993 sensitive areas
according to the criteria laid down in Annex II (freshwater
bodies and coastal waters which are found to be eutrophic or
which in the near future may become eutrophic, nitrate
content of surface freshwater intended for the abstraction of
drinking water and water requiring further treatment to fulfil
other Community directives). The present action concerns
only the failure to identify sensitive areas with respect to
waters for which the Autonomous Communities are respon-
sible: waters relating to intra-community river basins and
coastal waters.

So far, only the Autonomous Communities of Andalucı´a,
Galicia, Murcia and Cantabria have identified their sensitive
areas in respect of coastal waters, gazetted them and communi-
cated them to the Commission. So far as concerns the river
basin draining waters only from within the Autonomous
Community of Catalonia, the Commission takes the view that

Action brought on 26 October 2001 by the Commission
of the European Communities against the Portuguese
Republic

(Case C-425/01)

(2001/C 348/38)

An action against
the Portuguese Republic was brought
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on
the European
26 October 2001 by the Commission of
Communities, represented by Horstpeter Kreppel and Miguel
França, acting as Agents, with an address for service in
Luxembourg at the office of Luis Escobar Guerrero, Wagner
Centre, Kirchberg.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— Declare that the Portuguese Republic has failed to fulfil
its oligations under Articles 4, 10, 11 and 12 of Council
Directive 89/391/EEC (1),

— Order the Portuguese Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Portuguese Republic has still not adopted any legislation
relating to the procedure for electing workers’ representatives
in health and safety matters at work. The fact that there are no
workers’ representatives in health and safety matters at the
work place — for lack of
legislation governing election
procedures — makes it impossible for workers to exercise their
rights in that regard. Contrary to the Portuguese authorities’
contention, if it were not necessary to adopt the legislation
proper to the implementation of the electoral procedure to
enable workers to elect
the express
mention made by the Portuguese legislature in Article 23(2)(b)
of Decree Law No 441/91 of the need to legislate for that
electoral procedure would be entirely redundant.

their representatives,

(1) Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduc-
tion of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and
health of workers at work (OJ 1989 L 183, p. 1).