Case C-36/14: Action brought on 24 January 2014 — European Commission v Republic of Poland
Date: 2014-01-24
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Poland, consumer protection, domestic market, energy industry, fixing of prices, infringement of EU law, intervention policy, natural gas, principle of proportionality








C_2014085EN.01001801.xml










22.3.2014   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 85/18





Action brought on 24 January 2014 — European Commission v Republic of Poland
(Case C-36/14)
2014/C 85/33
Language of the case: Polish

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: K. Herrmann and M. Patakia, Agents)

Defendant: Republic of Poland

Form of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:






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declare that, by engaging in State intervention, unlimited in time, in such a way that (i) energy undertakings are obliged to apply prices for supplies of natural gas which have been approved by the president of the Energy Regulation Authority, although national law does not impose on the national administrative authorities any obligation to check at regular intervals the necessity and nature of the application of that intervention in the gas sector, having regard to the level of development of that sector, and (ii) that intervention is characterised by its application to an unlimited group of users, without any distinction being drawn according to customers and without any differentiation of the situation of individuals within the context of individual groups, the Republic of Poland is applying a measure which is disproportionate and incompatible with Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 2003/55/EC, (1) and, in this connection, has failed to comply with its obligations under Article 3(1), in conjunction with Article 3(2), of that directive;










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order the Republic of Poland to pay the costs of the proceedings.





Pleas in law and main arguments

The obligation, laid down in Article 47 of the Polish Energy Law, failure to comply with which attracts a monetary fine, to obtain the approval of the president of the Energy Regulation Authority in respect of prices for supplies of natural gas constitutes, in so far as it applies to all energy undertakings for supplies to customers other than households, State intervention in the form of price regulation which is at variance with the requirements of the principle of proportionality and, in that connection, breaches Article 3(1) and (2) of Directive 2009/73/EC.
The disputed State intervention fails to satisfy the standards laid down by the Court of Justice in its judgment in Case C-265/08 Federutility and Others, as the national law in force (the Energy Law of 10 April 1997) provides for an obligation to apply regulated prices in a manner which goes beyond what is necessary for realisation of a general economic interest (protection against excessively high gas prices). In particular, the obligation to apply for authorisation of prices for natural gas supplies is not limited in time and is not subject to any examination of the situation prevalent on the gas market and justifying such an intervention. In addition, it is applied in the same way to all energy undertakings which have not been expressly exempted by the president of the Energy Regulation Authority, without their position on the gas market being taken into consideration and without any distinction being drawn according to the category of customer receiving the supplies: industrial end users, wholesale concerns and households are treated in the same way.


(1)  OJ 2009 L 211, p. 94.