Case C-26/11: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 31 January 2013 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Grondwettelijk Hof (Belgium)) — Belgische Petroleum Unie VZW and Others v Belgische Staat (Directive 98/70/EC — Quality of petrol and diesel fuels — Articles 3 to 5 — Environmental specifications for fuels — Directive 98/34/EC — Information procedure in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society services — Articles 1 and 8 — Concept of ‘technical regulation’ — Obligation to communicate draft technical regulations — National rules requiring petroleum companies placing petrol and/or diesel fuels on the market in the same calendar year also to place on the market a quantity of biofuels)
Date: 2013-01-31
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Belgium, biofuel, diesel fuel, environmental standard, information society, interpretation of the law, marketing standard, petrol, product quality, technical standard








C_2013086EN.01000202.xml










23.3.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 86/2





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 31 January 2013 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Grondwettelijk Hof (Belgium)) — Belgische Petroleum Unie VZW and Others v Belgische Staat
(Case C-26/11) (1)

(Directive 98/70/EC - Quality of petrol and diesel fuels - Articles 3 to 5 - Environmental specifications for fuels - Directive 98/34/EC - Information procedure in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society services - Articles 1 and 8 - Concept of ‘technical regulation’ - Obligation to communicate draft technical regulations - National rules requiring petroleum companies placing petrol and/or diesel fuels on the market in the same calendar year also to place on the market a quantity of biofuels)
2013/C 86/03
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Grondwettelijk Hof

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicants: Belgische Petroleum Unie VZW, Continental Tanking Company NV, Belgische Olie Maatschappij NV, Octa NV, Van Der Sluijs Group Belgium NV, Belgomazout Liège NV, Martens Energie NV, Transcor Oil Services NV, Mabanaft BV, Belgomine NV, Van Raak Distributie NV, Bouts NV, Gabriels & Co NV, Joassin René NV, Orion Trading Group NV, Petrus NV, Argosoil Belgium NV

Defendants: Belgische Staat,

Intervening parties: Belgian Bioethanol Association VZW, Belgian Biodiesel Board VZW

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Grondwettelijk Hof — Interpretation of Article 4(3) TEU, Articles 26(2), 28, 34, 35 and 36 TFEU, Articles 3, 4 and 5 of Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Council Directive 93/12/EC (OJ 1998 L 350, p. 58) and Article 8 of Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society services (OJ 1998 L 204, p. 37) — National rules requiring petroleum companies releasing petrol and diesel products for consumption also to make available for consumption in the same year a quantity of bio-ethanol, pure or in the form of bio-ETBE, and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Articles 3 to 5 of Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Council Directive 93/12/EEC, as amended by Directive 2009/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which, in accordance with the objective of promoting the use of biofuels in transport, set for each Member State by Directives 2003/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 May 2003 on the promotion of the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport, 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC, and 2009/30, requires petroleum companies placing petrol and/or diesel fuels on the market also to place on the market, in the same calendar year, a quantity of biofuels by blending them with those products, where this quantity is calculated as a percentage of the total amount of those products which they market annually, and where those percentages comply with the maximum limits set by Directive 98/70, as amended by Directive 2009/30.










2.


Article 8 of Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society services, as amended by Directive 98/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 July 1998, read in conjunction with Article 10(1), final indent, of that directive, must be interpreted as not requiring notification of draft national legislation which obliges petroleum companies placing petrol and/or diesel fuels on the market also to place on the market, in the same calendar year, certain percentages of biofuels, where, after having been notified pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 8(1), the draft was amended to take account of the Commission’s observations on it, and the amended draft was then communicated to the Commission.






(1)  OJ C 113, 9.4.2011.