CELEX: C1999/352/06
Language: en
Date: 1999-12-04 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 9 September 1999 in Case C-217/97: Commission of the European Communities v Federal Republic of Germany (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Directive 90/313/EEC - Freedom of access to information on the environment - Definition of public authorities - Exclusion of the courts, criminal prosecution authorities and disciplinary authorities - Partial communication of information - Exclusion of the right to information during administrative proceedings - Amount of charges and mode of collecting them)

4.12.1999                 EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                            C 352/3
2. The demands of an investigation conducted by the national                1. Declares that, by failing to take the measures necessary to
     authorities may, in the absence of any deception or negligence on          give priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration,
     the part of the person liable, and where that person has not been          notwithstanding that technical, economic and organisational
     informed that the investigation is being carried out, constitute a         constraints so allowed, the Federal Republic of Germany has
     special situation within the meaning of Article 13(1) of Council           failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 3(1) of Council
     Regulation (EEC) 1430/79 of 3 July 1979 on the repayment                   Directive 75/439/EEC of 16 June 1975 on the disposal of
     or remission of import or export duties, as amended by Council             waste oils, as amended by Council Directive 87/101/EEC of
     Regulation (EEC) No 3069/86 of 7 October 1986, where the                   22 December 1986;
     fact that the national authorities have, in the interests of the
     investigation, deliberately allowed offences or irregularities to be   2. Orders the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs.
     committed, thus causing the principal to incur a customs debt,
     places the principal in an exceptional situation in comparison
     with other operators engaged in the same business.                     (1) OJ C 142 of 10.5.1997.
3. Commission Decision C(98) 372 of 18 February 1998 is
     invalid.
(1) OJ C 113 of 11.4.1998.
                                                                                             JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
                                                                                                     (Sixth Chamber)
                   JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
                                                                                                  of 9 September 1999
                            (Fifth Chamber)
                                                                            in Case C-217/97: Commission of the European Communi-
                        of 9 September 1999                                             ties v Federal Republic of Germany(1)
in Case C-102/97 Commission of the European Communi-
              ties v Federal Republic of Germany(1)                         (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Directive
                                                                            90/313/EEC — Freedom of access to information on the
                                                                            environment — Definition of public authorities — Exclusion
(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Directive                of the courts, criminal prosecution authorities and disciplin-
87/101/EEC — Disposal of waste oils — Transposition of                      ary authorities — Partial communication of information —
                              the directive)                                Exclusion of the right to information during administrative
                                                                            proceedings — Amount of charges and mode of collecting
                            (1999/C 352/05)                                                                them)
                     (Language of the case: German)                                                   (1999/C 352/06)
(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published                         (Language of the case: German)
                     in the European Court Reports)
In Case C-102/97: Commission of the European Communities                    (Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published
(Agent: Götz zur Hausen) v Federal Republic of Germany                                         in the European Court Reports)
(Agents: initially Ernst Röder and Bernd Kloke, and, sub-
sequently, Ernst Röder and Claus-Dieter Quassowski) —
Application for a declaration that, by failing to give priority to          In Case C-217/97: Commission of the European Communities
the recycling, rather than the thermal processing, of waste oils,           (Agent: Götz zur Hausen) v Federal Republic of Germany
notwithstanding that such processing is not precluded by any                (Agent: Ernst Röder, assisted by Dieter Sellner) — application
economic, technical or organisational constraints, the Federal              for a declaration that the Federal Republic of Germany
Republic of Germany has failed to fulfil its obligations under              has failed to fulfil its obligations under Council Directive
Article 3(1) of Council Directive 75/439/EEC of 16 June 1975                90/313/EEC of 7 June 1990 on the freedom of access to
on the disposal of waste oils (OJ 1975 L 194, p. 23), as                    information on the environment (OJ 1990 L 158, p. 56), in
amended by Council Directive 87/101/EEC of 22 December                      particular Article 2(b), Article 3(2), third indent of the first
1986 (OJ 1987 L 42, p. 43) — the Court (Fifth Chamber),                     subparagraph and second subparagraph, and Article 5 thereof
composed of: J.-P. Puissochet, President of the Chamber,                    — the Court (Sixth Chamber), composed of: P.J.G. Kapteyn,
P. Jann, J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, L. Sevón (Rapporteur) and               President of the Chamber, G. Hirsch and R. Schintgen (Rappor-
M. Wathelet, Judges, N. Fennelly, Advocate General; D. Louter-              teur), Judges; N. Fennelly, Advocate General; L. Hewlett, Princi-
man-Hubeau, Principal Administrator, for the Registrar, has                 pal Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment on
given a judgment on 9 September 1999, in which it:                          9 September 1999, in which it held:
 ---pagebreak--- C 352/4                  EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                          4.12.1999
1. The Federal Republic of Germany has failed to fulfil its                L 39, p. 40) — the Court (Sixth Chamber), composed of:
    obligations under the third indent of the first subparagraph, and      G. Hirsch (Rapporteur), President of the Second Chamber,
    the second subparagraph, of Article 3(2) and under Article 5 of        acting for the President of the Sixth Chamber, J.L. Murray and
    Directive 90/313,                                                      H. Ragnemalm, Judges; P. Léger, Advocate General; H. Rühl,
                                                                           Principal Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment
    — By failing to provide for access to be given to information          on 9 September 1999, in which it has ruled:
         during administrative proceedings where the public auth-
         orities have received information in the course of those          Article 119 of the EC Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty
         proceedings,                                                      have been replaced by Articles 136 EC to 143 EC) must be
                                                                           interpreted as meaning that exclusion by a collective agreement from
    — by failing to provide in the Umweltinformationsgesetz for            entitlement to a special annual bonus provided for by that collective
         information to be supplied in part where it is possible to        agreement of persons in employment which involves a normal
         separate out information concerning the interests referred to     working week of less than 15 hours and normal pay not exceeding a
         in Article 3(2) of Council Directive 90/313/EEC of 7 June         fraction of the monthly baseline and is, on that basis, exempt from
         1990 on the freedom of access to information on the               compulsory social insurance constitutes indirect discrimination based
         environment, and                                                  on sex, where that exclusion applies independently of the sex of the
                                                                           worker but actually affects a considerably higher percentage of women
    — by failing to provide that a charge is to be made only where         than men.
         information is in fact supplied.
2. The remainder of the application is dismissed.                          (1) OJ C 295 of 27.9.1997.
3. The Federal Republic of Germany is ordered to pay the costs.
(1) OJ C 252 of 16.8.1997.
                                                                                            JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
                                                                                                   (Second Chamber)
                                                                                                 of 9 September 1999
                 JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
                                                                           in Case C-374/97 (reference for a preliminary ruling from
                          (Sixth Chamber)                                  the Bayerischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof): Anton Feyrer v
                                                                                                Landkreis Rottal-Inn (1)
                       of 9 September 1999
                                                                           (Directive 85/73/EEC — Fees in respect of health inspections
in Case C-281/97 (reference for a preliminary ruling from                            and controls of fresh meat — Direct effect)
the Arbeitsgericht, Munich): Andrea Krüger v Kreiskran-
                       kenhaus Ebersberg (1)                                                         (1999/C 352/08)
(Equal treatment for men and women — End-of-year bonus
                    — Conditions for granting)                                                (Language of the case: German)
                           (1999/C 352/07)                                 (Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published
                                                                                              in the European Court Reports)
                    (Language of the case: German)                         In Case C-374/97: reference to the Court under Article 177 of
                                                                           the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) from the Bayerischer
                                                                           Verwaltungsgerichtshof, Germany, for a preliminary ruling in
(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published     the proceedings pending before that court between Anton
                    in the European Court Reports)                         Feyrer and Landkreis Rottal-Inn (Intervener: Landesanwalt-
                                                                           schaft Bayern als Vertreter des öffentlichen Interesses) —
In Case C-281/97: reference to the Court under Article 177 of              on the interpretation of Article 2(3) of Council Directive
the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) from the Arbeitsgericht                 85/73/EEC of 29 January 1985 on the financing of health
(Labour Court), Munich, Germany, for a preliminary ruling in               inspections and controls of fresh meat and poultrymeat (OJ
the proceedings pending before that court between Andrea                   1985 L 32, p. 14), as amended by Council Directive 93/118/EC
Krüger and Kreiskrankenhaus Ebersberg — on the interpret-                  of 22 December 1993 (OJ 1993 L 340, p. 15), and of points 1
ation of Article 119 of the EC Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of              and 4(b) of Chapter I of the Annex thereto — the Court
the EC Treaty have been replaced by Articles 136 EC to 143                 (Second Chamber), composed of: G. Hirsch, President of the
EC) and Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on                 Chamber, G.F. Mancini and R. Schintgen (Rapporteur), Judges;
the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for                 P. Léger, Advocate General; D. Louterman-Hubeau, Principal
men and women as regards access to employment, vocational                  Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment on
training and promotion, and working conditions (OJ 1976                    9 September 1999, in which it has ruled: