CELEX: C2004/071/23
Language: en
Date: 2004-03-20 00:00:00
Title: Case C-34/04: Action brought on 29 January 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of the Netherlands

C 71/14               EN                        Official Journal of the European Union                                        20.3.2004
The Commission of the European Communities claims that                  Action brought on 29 January 2004 by the Commission
the Court should declare that:                                          of the European Communities against the Kingdom of the
                                                                                                    Netherlands
—     by failing to comply with the obligation to verify the
      compliance of cost accounting systems by an independent
      competent body and to publish a statement of compliance                                     (Case C-34/04)
      for 1998 and 1999, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
      has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 7(5) of
      Directive 97/33/EC of the European Parliament and of                                        (2004/C 71/23)
      the Council of 30 June 1997 on interconnection in
      telecommunications with regard to ensuring universal
      service and interoperability through application of the
      principles of Open Network Provision (ONP) (1);
                                                                        An action against the Kingdom of the Netherlands was brought
—     by failing in practice to apply correctly the measures            before the Court of Justice of the European Communities
      adopted for the purpose of implementing Article 18(1)             on 29 January 2004 by the Commission of the European
      and (2) of Directive 98/10/EC as regards verification of          Communities, represented by T. van Rijn and C. Diderich,
      the compliance of the cost accounting system by the               acting as Agents.
      national regulatory authority or another competent body,
      independent of the telecommunications organisation and
      approved by the national regulatory authority, and as
      regards annual publication of a statement of compliance,          The applicant claims that the Court should:
      the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has failed to fulfil its
      obligations under Article 18 of Directive 98/10/EC of the
                                                                        —     declare that, by failing to withdraw the fishing licences
      European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February
                                                                              granted to the fishing vessels WIRON III and WIRON IV
      1998 on the application of open network provision
                                                                              following the definitive transfer of those vessels to
      (ONP) to voice telephony and on universal service for
                                                                              Argentina, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has failed to
      telecommunications in a competitive environment (2).
                                                                              fulfil its obligations under Article 5 of Regulation (EC)
                                                                              No 3690/93 of 20 December 1993 establishing a Com-
                                                                              munity system laying down rules for the minimum
                                                                              information to be contained in fishing licences;
Pleas in law and main arguments:
                                                                        —     order the Kingdom of the Netherlands to pay the costs.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has not yet adopted all the
measures necessary in order to ensure the full transposition
and implementation of Article 7(5) of Directive 97/33 as
regards:                                                                Pleas in law and main arguments
—     verification of the compliance of the cost accounting
      system by the national regulatory authority or another            Under the Agreement on relations in the sea fisheries sector
      competent body;                                                   between the European Economic Community and the Argen-
                                                                        tine Republic (OJ 1993 L 318, p. 2), the fishing vessels WIRON
                                                                        III and WIRON IV, which flew the Netherlands flag and were
—     annual publication of a statement of compliance.                  registered in the Netherlands, were transferred to Argentina.
                                                                        The vessels were removed from the Netherlands register of
                                                                        fishing vessels, transferred to Argentina and registered there in
                                                                        the national shipping register. The Commission discovered
As regards Directive 98/10, verification of the compliance of           that the fishing licences granted to the vessels WIRON III and
the cost accounting system of the operator Entreprise des               WIRON IV had been used again for other vessels. Such conduct
Postes et Télécommunications (EPT) has not yet taken place.             is inconsistent with the obligation imposed on the Netherlands
In addition, no statement concerning compliance has been                under Article 5 of Regulation No 3690/93 to withdraw
published.                                                              the fishing licences of vessels which have been definitively
                                                                        withdrawn from fishing activities. From the Community’s
                                                                        point of view, the definitive transfer of a vessel to a non-
(1) OJ 1997 L 199, p. 32.                                               member country is equivalent to the definitive withdrawal of
(2) OJ 1998 L 101, p. 24.                                               that vessel from fishing activity.