Case C-395/17: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 31 October 2019 — European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Own resources — Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) with the European Union — Decision 91/482/EEC — Decision 2001/822/EC — Acceptance for import into the European Union free of customs duties of products originating in the OCTs — Movement certificate EUR. 1 — Wrongful issue of certificates by the authorities of an OCT — Customs duties not collected by the importing Member States — Article 4(3) TEU — Principle of sincere cooperation — Liability of the Member State having special relations with the OCTs concerned — Obligation to compensate the loss of the European Union’s own resources caused by the wrongful issue of EUR.1 certificates — Imports of milk powder and rice from Curaçao and of groats and meal from Aruba)
Date: 2019-10-31
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Aruba, Curaçao, customs document, groat, import (EU), meal, originating product, own resources, powdered milk, rice








C_2019432EN.01000401.xml










23.12.2019   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 432/4






Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 31 October 2019 — European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands
(Case C-395/17) (1)

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Own resources - Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) with the European Union - Decision 91/482/EEC - Decision 2001/822/EC - Acceptance for import into the European Union free of customs duties of products originating in the OCTs - Movement certificate EUR. 1 - Wrongful issue of certificates by the authorities of an OCT - Customs duties not collected by the importing Member States - Article 4(3) TEU - Principle of sincere cooperation - Liability of the Member State having special relations with the OCTs concerned - Obligation to compensate the loss of the European Union’s own resources caused by the wrongful issue of EUR.1 certificates - Imports of milk powder and rice from Curaçao and of groats and meal from Aruba)
(2019/C 432/04)
Language of the case: Dutch

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: J.-F. Brakeland, A. Caeiros, L. Flynn and S. Noë, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of the Netherlands (represented by: M.K. Bulterman, M.H.S. Gijzen, P. Huurnink and J. Langer, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented initially by J. Kraehling, G. Brown, R. Fadoju and S. Brandon, acting as Agents, and by K. Beal QC and P. Luckhurst, Barristers, and subsequently by S. Brandon and F. Shibli, acting as Agents, and by K. Beal QC and P. Luckhurst, Barristers)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Declares that, by failing to compensate the loss of own resources resulting from the wrongful issue, in the light of Council Decision 91/482/EEC of 25 July 1991 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Economic Community and then of Council Decision 2001/822/EC of 27 November 2001 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Community, by the authorities of Curaçao and of Aruba, of movement certificates EUR. 1 in respect of, respectively, imports of milk powder and rice from Curaçao during the period 1997/2000 and imports of groats and meal from Aruba during the period 2002/2003, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4(3) TEU;










2.


Orders the Kingdom of the Netherlands to pay the costs;










3.


Orders the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to bear its own costs.






(1)  OJ C 347, 16.10.2017.