Case C-275/04: Action brought on 29 June 2004 against the Kingdom of Belgium by the Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2004-08-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Belgium, European Commission, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, disclosure of information, financial control, financial management, financial regulation, financing of the EU budget, own resources

28.8.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 217/15

That obligation of
transparency which is imposed on the
contracting authority consists in ensuring, for the benefit of
any potential tenderer, a degree of advertising sufficient to
enable the services market to be opened to competition and
the impartiality of procurement procedures to be reviewed.

own resources, whose aim is identical to Article 10 of the
EC Treaty.

2. Order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.

In the Commission's opinion, it is wholly clear that the prin-
ciple of transparency referred to above was not observed by the
Italian authorities at the time of renewal of the aforementioned
329 licences for the collection and acceptance of bets on horse
races to 1 January 2006 in favour of the incumbent holders
outside a competitive tendering procedure.

(1) OJ L 209 of 24.7.1992, p. 1
(2) [2000] ECR I-10745
(3) [1999] ECR I-8291, paragraph 31

Action brought on 29 June 2004 against the Kingdom of
Belgium by the Commission of the European Commu-
nities

(Case C-275/04)

(2004/C 217/28)

An action was brought before the Court of Justice of the Euro-
pean Communities on 29 June 2004 by the Commission of the
European Communities, represented by C. Giolito and G.
Wilms, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxem-
bourg, against the Kingdom of Belgium.

The Commission claims that the Court should:

1. Declare that:

— by failing to enter in the accounts referred to in Article
6(3)(a) of Regulation No 1150/2000 (1) the entitlements
established within the prescribed periods;

and

— by failing to check whether since 1 January 1995 other
delays in making own resources available occurred
following a late entry in the accounts referred to in
Article 6(3)(a) of Regulation No 1150/2000, by
destroying the records covering that period and by
failing to communicate them to the Commission in
order to enable it to calculate the overdue interest owing
pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation No 1552/89 (2) due
to a delay in making own resources available;

Pleas in law and principal arguments:

The Kingdom of Belgium's disregard of the Community provi-
sions governing accounting entries has given rise to delays in
making own resources available. Member States are required to
enter the amounts of established, guaranteed and uncontested
entitlements in the accounts referred to in Article 6(3)(a) of
Regulation No 1150/2000 (‘A Accounts’), whereas the accounts
referred to in Article 6(3)(b) (‘B Accounts’) are reserved exclu-
sively for established entitlements which have not yet been
collected and for which no security has been provided. The
amounts covered by a guarantee issued under the external
transit system procedure (T1, TIR carnets, ATA carnets, etc.)
may be entered in the separate accounts only if they have been
duly contested, which implies inter alia that time-limits have
been complied with and the action has been commenced in
writing.

The Commission cannot accept the justifications put forward
by Belgium in support of the anomalies and delayed entries.

(1) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22.05.2000
implementing Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom on the system of the
Communities' own resources (OJ 2000 L 130, p. 1).

(2) Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 of 29.05.1989
implementing Decision 88/376/EEC, Euratom on the system of the
Communities' own resources (OJ 1989 L 155, p. 1).

(3) OJ 2000 L 293, p. 9.

Action brought on 30 June 2004 by the Commission of
the European Communities against the Kingdom of the
Netherlands

(Case C-282/04)

(2004/C 217/29)

An action against the Kingdom of the Netherlands was brought
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on
30 June 2004 by the Commission of the European Commu-
nities, represented by Hans Støvlbæk and Albert Nijenhuis,
acting as Agents.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations
under Articles 6(3), 9, 10 and 11 of Council Regulation (EC,
Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000 implementing
Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom on the system of the Commu-
nities' own resources (3), which, as from 31 May 2000,
repealed and replaced Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom)
No 1552/89 of 29 May 1989 implementing Decision
88/376/EEC, Euratom on the system of the Communities'

— declare that by retaining certain provisions

from the
statutes of the firm Koninklijke KPN NV, namely that the
shares of the firm contain a special named share which is
owned by the Netherlands State and to which special rights
are attached with regard to the approval of certain decisions
taken by the authorised organs of the firm, the Kingdom of
the Netherlands has failed to fulfil
its obligations under
Articles 56 and 43 EC;