Request for an Opinion submitted by the European Parliament under Article 300(6) of the EC Treaty (Opinion 1/04)
Date: 2004-04-30
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: United States, customs cooperation, data protection, disclosure of information, interpretation of the law, legal basis, opinion of the Court of Justice (EU), personal data

30.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 118/1

I

(Information)

COURT OF JUSTICE

COURT OF JUSTICE

Request for an Opinion submitted by the European Parlia-
ment under Article 300(6) of the EC Treaty

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Opinion 1/04)

(2004/C 118/01)

A request for an Opinion under Article 300(6) of the EC Treaty
was made on 21 April 2004 by the European Parliament,
represent by R. Passos, H. Duintjer Tebbens and N. Lorenz,
acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

(Sixth Chamber)

of 29 April 2004

in Case C-372/97: Italian Republic v Commission of the
European Communities (1)

(State aid — Transport of goods by road — Effect on trade
between Member States and distortion of competition —
Conditions for exemption from the prohibition set out in
Article 92(1) of the EC Treaty (now, following amendment,
Article 87(1) EC) — Existing aid or new aid — Principles of
reasonableness and of the protection of legitimate expecta-
tions — Mo)

(2004/C 118/02)

(Language of the case: Italian)

The European Parliament requests the Court of Justice for a
reply to the following questions:

(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published in
the European Court Reports)

(a) Is the first sentence of the first subparagraph of Article
300(3) EC the appropriate legal basis for the Council Deci-
sion on the conclusion of the proposed agreement between
the European Community and the United States of America
on the processing and transfer of Passenger Name Record
data by air carriers to the United States Department of
Homeland Security, Bureau of Customs and Border Protec-
tion?

(b) Must the abovementioned proposed agreement be regarded
as being compatible with the right to protection of personal
data, as enshrined in particular in Article 8 of the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the Com-
munity is required to observe in the same way as the
Treaty?

In Case C-372/97: Italian Republic (Agents: I. M. Braguglia,
assisted by O. Fiumara), with an address for service in Luxem-
bourg, v Commission of the European Communities (Agents: P.
Nemitz and P. Stancanelli, assisted by M. Moretto), with an
address for service in Luxembourg — application for annul-
ment in part of Commission Decision 98/182/EC of 30 July
1997 concerning aid granted by the Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Region (Italy) to road haulage companies in the Region (OJ
1998 L 66, p. 18) — the Court (Sixth Chamber), composed of:
V. Skouris, acting as President of the Sixth Chamber,
J. N.
Cunha Rodrigues, J.-P. Puissochet, R. Schintgen and F. Macken
(Rapporteur), Judges; S. Alber, Advocate General; M.-F. Contet,
Prinicple Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment
on 29 April 2004, in which it:

1. Held that there is no need to adjudicate on the form of order
sought
in the action for annulment of Articles 2 and 5 of
Commission Decision 98/182/EC of 30 July 1997 concerning
aid granted by the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) to road
in so far as those articles
haulage companies in the Region,
declare that aid granted as from 1 July 1990 to undertakings
carrying out exclusively local, regional or national haulage is
illegal.