Case C-248/03: Action brought on 6 June 2003 by the Commission of the European Communities against (1) "TASEIS TRENDS" (Transport Environment Development Systems) and (2) Marios Kontaratos and Others
Date: 2003-08-02
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, action for annulment (EU), financial control, redemption, research and development, technological change, telematics

2.8.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 184/25

The Commission claims that the Court should:

— declare that, by failing to adopt and,
in any event, to
regulations and
notify to the Commission the laws,
administrative provisions necessary
to comply with
Council Directive 1999/22/EC (1) of 29 March 1999
relating to the keeping of wild animals in zoos,
the
Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under
that directive;

— order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In accordance with the third paragraph of Article 249 EC,
directives are binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon
each Member State to which they are addressed.

Under the first paragraph of Article 10 EC, Member States are
to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular,
to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty
or
the
resulting from action taken by the institutions of
Community.

It is not disputed by the Hellenic Republic that it must adopt
measures to comply with the abovementioned directive.

The Commission records that until now the Hellenic Republic
incor-
has not adopted the appropriate measures for the full
poration of the directive at issue into Greek law.

(1) OJ L 94, 9.4.1999, p. 24.

Action brought on 6 June 2003 by the Commission of the
‘TASEIS TRENDS’
European Communities against
(Transport Environment Development Systems) and (2)
Marios Kontaratos and Others

(1)

(Case C-248/03)

(2003/C 184/45)

‘TASEIS TRENDS’
(Transport Environ-
An action against (1)
ment Development Systems) and (2) Marios Kontaratos and
Others was brought before the Court of
the
European Communities on 6 June 2003 by the Commission
of the European Communities, represented by Maria Patakia, of
its Legal Service, Maria Bra, of
the Brussels Bar, and K.
Kapoutzidou, of the Athens Bar, with an address for service
in Luxembourg.

Justice of

The Commission claims that the Court should:

— allow the application in its entirety;
— order the defendant partnership ‘TASEIS TRENDS’ and the
defendants who are members thereof to reimburse to the
the wrongly made
Commission the entire amount of
advance payments received by the defendant partnership
from the Community in respect of the contracts at issue,
that
is to say the sum of EUR 48 046, together with
contractual interest in respect of the period from the date
calculated in that way
of mispayment,

interest

the

amounting to EUR 15 745,34 on 30 September 2002
the
and to EUR 7,97 (7,03 plus 0,94) per day until
defendant's debt has been fully discharged, or,
in the
alternative, interest for late payment under Article 94 of
Commission Regulation No 3418/93 on the whole sum
of EUR 48 046, at a rate of 5,50% from 31 December
1998 (when the period laid down by the order
for
payment expired) until the defendant's debt has been fully
discharged, amounting up until 30 September 2002 to
EUR 9 911 and thereafter EUR 7,24 per day;

— order the defendants to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

‘TASEIS TRENDS’

The defendant
is a civil-law partnership
governed by Greek law, which has as its object the promotion
of research and the dissemination of information on proble-
matical
issues in relation to the environment, development,
town planning, transport and so forth. It concluded with the
Commission, within the framework of Council Decision 94/
801/EC of 23 November 1994 adopting a specific programme
for research and technological development, including demon-
stration in the field of
telematics applications of common
interest (1994 to 1998) (1), the following contracts: (i) Contract
ARTEMIS — EN 1001 (implementation of the project ‘Artemis
— Application Research and Testing for Emergency Manage-
Intelligent Systems’) and (ii) Contract TILEMATT —
ment
TR 1057 (implementation of the project ‘Tilematt — Testing
and Implementing Links in Europe for Multimodal Applica-
tions of Transport Telematics’).

Serious financial contraventions on the part of the defendant
were found following audits by the Court of Auditors and the
Commission. Since the defendant did not produce the evidence
needed to overturn the audit's conclusions, the Commission
considered the contracts to be terminated and sought reimbur-
sement of the sums overpaid.

The Commission pleads:

— in support of
its principal claim: Article 5,3(a)(ii) of
Annex II
the
to the contracts, which provides
Commission may immediately terminate the contract, or
the participation of any contractor, by written notice for
any financial irregularity of a serious nature;

that

— in support of

the principal head of claim regarding
payment of interest: the third paragraph of Article 5,4 of
in the
Annex II to the contracts, which provides that,
event of termination of the contract under Article 5,3(a)
of the annex,
interest is payable on any amount to be
reimbursed;

— in support of

the alternative head of claim regarding
payment of interest: Article 94 of Commission Regulation
No 3418/93 of 9 December 1993 laying down detailed
rules for the implementation of certain provisions of the
Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 (2).

(1) OJ L 334, 22.12.1994, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 315, 16.12.1993, p. 1.