Case C-429/01: Action brought on 5 November 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities against French Republic
Date: 2001-12-22
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, France, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, environmental risk prevention, genetically modified organism, microorganism

C 369/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

22.12.2001

— Order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.

2001 by the Commission of the European Communities,
represented by G. zur Hausen, acting as Agent, assisted by
H. van der Woude and V. Landes, avocats, with an address for
service in Luxembourg.

Pleas in law and main arguments

— The mere fact of having designated a number of special
protection areas does not in itself constitute a complete
and proper transposition of Article 4(1) and (2) of the
directive since such designation is only intended to
the general obligations enshrined in the
implement
directive. On the other hand, no legally binding provision
applicable in the territory of one or other region provides
for the classification as special protection areas of the
most appropriate areas in terms of number and surface
area for the conservation of the bird species listed in
Annex I and of the regularly occurring migratory species
not listed in Annex I, as regards their breeding, moulting
and wintering areas and staging posts along their
migration routes.

— The delimitation of the special protection areas by those
regions cannot be relied upon as against third parties in
the absence of their publication and in the absence of
provisions of national law providing expressly that the
publication of the order without accompanying maps is
to have no effect on their binding nature vis-à-vis third
parties.

— So far as the Flemish Region is concerned, the special
protection areas do not have the protection and conser-
vation status provided for by Community law in the field,
since the only measures which are applicable are either
sparse and disjointed or, on the contrary, are of an
extremely general nature having exactly the same value
within as outwith the special protection areas.

(1) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conser-

vation of wild birds (OJ 1979 L 103, p. 1).

(2) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation
of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (OJ 1992 L 206,
p. 7).

Action brought on 5 November 2001 by the Commission
of the European Communities against French Republic

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— Declare that, by failing to transpose completely Articles
14(a) and (b), 15(1) and (2), 16(1) and 19(2), (3) and (4)
of Council Directive 90/219/EEC of 23 April 1990
on the contained use of genetically modified micro-
organisms (1), and by failing to transpose the provisions
of the directive for certain contained use by the Ministry
of Defence, the French Republic has failed to fulfil its
obligations under that directive and Article 249 of the EC
Treaty; and

— Order the French Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

the implementing
The Commission takes the view that
measures communicated by the French authorities amount to
only incomplete transposition of certain provisions of the
directive, namely:

— Article 14(a), in so far as it concerns the use of genetically
modified micro-organisms belonging to Groups I and II
for teaching, research and development, and in so far as
to
it concerns installations other than those subject
authorisation involving uses for industrial or non-com-
mercial purposes;

— Article 14(b), in so far as it concerns installations subject
to declaration and in so far as it concerns making
available to other Member States concerned information
on safety measures and on the correct behaviour to adopt
in the case of an accident;

(Case C-429/01)

(2001/C 369/17)

— Article 15(1), in that the measures adopted by the French
authorities do not specify the list of information to be
provided by the user;

An action against the French Republic was brought before the
Court of Justice of the European Communities on 5 November

— Article 15(2), in so far as it concerns the drawing up of a
framework for the measures designed to alert any Member
State liable to be affected by an accident;

22.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 369/11

— Article 16(1), in so far as it concerns the drawing up of a
framework for consulting with other Member States and
informing the Commission as soon as possible of any
accident;

— Article 19(2), in so far as it concerns the duty of an
operator to provide verifiable justification when seeking
confidential treatment of certain information contained
in its application for approval;

— Article 19(4), in so far as it concerns public access to

certain non-confidential data;

— all the provisions of the directive in so far as they concern

confined use by the Ministry of Defense.

(1) OJ 1990 L 117, p. 1.