CELEX: C1998/397/46
Language: en
Date: 1998-12-19 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 6 November 1998 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic (Case C-398/98)

C 397/26                EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                    19.12.98
      5. In the light of Community law, may such a system             Ð order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.
          be applied in a fair way to products from the
          domestic market and to imported products?
                                                                      Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
(b) Does depreciation of the real value of used vehicles,
      referred to in the judgment of the European Court of
      Justice in Case C-345/95 (1) Nunes Tadeu necessarily            The pleas in law and principal arguments advanced are
      imply that a valuation or expert assessment must be             analogous to those in Case C-394/98.
      carried out on every vehicle or may the calculation be
      made in general and abstract terms by reference to a            (1) OJ L 136, 21.6.1995, p. 28.
      legal criterion?
(c) If      the     European       Commission       discontinues
      infringement proceedings against a Member State on
      the understanding that the new national legislation is
      now in conformity with Community law, may a
      national supreme court, relying on the interpretation           Action brought on 6 November 1998 by the Commission
      of Community law and of national law adopted by                 of the European Communities against the Hellenic
      the Commission, be relieved of the obligation imposed                                       Republic
      on it by Article 177 of the EC Treaty to request a
                                                                                             (Case C-398/98)
      preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the
      European Communities and decide the case in                                             (98/C 397/46)
      accordance with the interpretation adopted by the
      European Commission?
                                                                      An action against the Hellenic Republic was brought
(1) [1995] ECR I-479.
                                                                      before the Court of Justice of the European Communities
                                                                      on 6 November 1998 by the Commission of the European
                                                                      Communities, represented by Dimitris Triantafillou, of its
                                                                      Legal Service, and Olivier Couvert-CasteÂra, a civil servant
                                                                      on secondment to the same service, with an address for
                                                                      service in Luxembourg at the Office of Carlos Gómez de
                                                                      la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.
Action brought on 5 November 1998 by the Commission
of the European Communities against the Kingdom of
                              Belgium
                                                                      The Commission claims that the Court should declare
                          (Case C-395/98)                             that, by laying down and retaining a system for stocks of
                                                                      petroleum products which directly links the possibility of
                           (98/C 397/45)
                                                                      transferring to the refineries operating in the country the
                                                                      obligation to stock supplies with an obligation to obtain
                                                                      supplies of petroleum products from those refineries, and
An action against the Kingdom of Belgium was brought                  by precluding service stations from obtaining supplies
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities               from refineries or from another Member State, the
on 5 November 1998 by the Commission of the European                  Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under
Communities, represented by R. B. Wainwright, Principal               Article 30 of the EC Treaty.
Legal Adviser, and O. Couvert-CasteÂra, a national civil
servant on secondment to its Legal Service, acting as
Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the
                                                                      Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
Office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, Wagner Centre,
Kirchberg.
                                                                      In the Commission's view, the Greek system for
The Commission of the European Communities claims                     maintaining emergency stocks is contrary to Article 30 of
that the Court should:                                                the EC Treaty to the extent that the effect of the
                                                                      obligations imposed on the petroleum product companies
                                                                      is to confer an advantage on the products of Greek
Ð declare that, by failing to adopt or, in any event, by              refineries because the distribution companies are in reality
     failing to communicate to the Commission the laws,               obliged to obtain supplies exclusively from those
     regulations and administrative measures necessary in             refineries. The negative effects of that situation on the free
     order to comply with Commission Directive 95/13/EC               movement of petroleum products within the Community
     of 23 May 1995 implementing Council Directive 92/                are, additionally, intensified by the way in which the
     75/EEC with regard to energy labelling of household              distribution of petroleum products is organised in Greece,
     electric tumble driers (1), the Kingdom of Belgium has           whereby service-station operators are required to obtain
     failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive;           supplies exclusively from the distribution companies.
 ---pagebreak--- 19.12.98              EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                C 397/27
The Commission considers that that system, resulting                Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
from the legislation in force, is capable of hindering,
directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-
Community trade in petroleum products.                              Under the third paragraph of Article 189 of the EC Treaty,
                                                                    directives are binding, as to the result to be achieved,
                                                                    upon each Member State to which they are addressed.
                                                                    Under the first paragraph of Article 5 of the EC Treaty,
It contends, furthermore, that the Hellenic Republic
                                                                    Member States are to take all appropriate measures,
cannot rely on Article 36 of the EC Treaty as a
                                                                    whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the
justification. A Member State may invoke Article 36 in
                                                                    obligations arising out of the Treaty or resulting from
order to justify a measure having equivalent effect to a
                                                                    action taken by thge institutions of the Community. The
quantitative restriction on imports only if no other
                                                                    abovementioned provisions require the Member States to
measure, less restrictive from the point of the view of the
                                                                    make their legislation consistent with Community
free movement of goods, is capable of achieving the same
                                                                    directives within the periods which those directives lay
objective. The objective of maintaining security of supply,
                                                                    down. A Member State may not invoke provisions,
which the Greek authorities state is the objective pursued
                                                                    practices or circumstances existing in its legal order in
by them, can be achieved by measures which are less
                                                                    order to justify a failure to comply with obligations and
restrictive of the free movement of goods.
                                                                    time-limits laid down by Community directives. It is not
                                                                    disputed by the Hellenic Republic that it must adopt
                                                                    measures to comply with Directive 94/47/EC. The time-
The Commission thus considers that the contested Greek              limit laid down by Article 12 of that directive expired on
legislation constitutes a measure which has equivalent              29 April 1997 without the Hellenic Republic having
effect to a quantitative restriction, contrary to Article 30        adopted the laws, regulations and administrative
of the Treaty, and cannot be justified on any of the                provisions necessary to comply with the directive or
grounds set out in Article 36 of the Treaty, and in                 having notified them to the Commission.
particular not on the basis of security of supply.
                                                                    (1) OJ L 280, 29.10.1994, p. 83.
Action brought on 10 November 1998 by the Commission
of the European Communities against the Hellenic                          Removal from the register of Case C-199/97 (1)
                           Republic                                                         (98/C 397/48)
                        (Case C-401/98)
                         (98/C 397/47)                              By order of 7 October 1998 the President of the Court of
                                                                    Justice of the European Communities has ordered the
                                                                    removal from the register of Case C-199/97 (reference for
                                                                    a preliminary ruling from the Royal Court of Jersey):
An action against the Hellenic Republic was brought
                                                                    Emidio Marco Rios v. His Excellency the Lieutenant
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities
                                                                    Governor of Jersey.
on 10 November 1998 by the Commission of the
European Communities, represented by Maria Kondou-
Durande, of its Legal Service, with an address for service          (1) OJ C 212, 12.7.1997.
in Luxembourg at the Office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz,
of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.
The Commission claims that the Court should:
                                                                           Removal from the register of Case C-80/98 (1)
Ð declare that, by not adopting the laws, regulations and                                   (98/C 397/49)
     administrative provisions necessary to comply with
     Directive 94/47/EC (1) of the European Parliament and
                                                                    By order of 7 October 1998 the President of the Court of
     the Council of 26 October 1994 on the protection of
                                                                    Justice of the European Communities has ordered the
     purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts
                                                                    removal from the register of Case C-80/98 (reference for a
     relating to the pourchase of the right to use
                                                                    preliminary ruling from the Sù- og Handelsret): 3Com
     immovable properties on a timeshare basis, or by not
                                                                    Corporation v. Bluecom Danmark A/S and KISS Nordic
     notifying them to the Commission, the Hellenic
                                                                    A/S.
     Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations udner that
     directive;
                                                                    (1) OJ C 166, 30.5.1998.
Ð order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.