CELEX: C1997/026/17
Language: en
Date: 1997-01-25 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 21 November 1996 by Mutual Aid Administration Services NV against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-186/96)

No C 26/ 10          EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                 25 . 1 . 97
 Action brought on 21 November 1996 by Mutual Aid                   tender were issued for the supply of the goods and their
 Administration Services NV against the Commission of the           transport. The suppliers of the products failed to respect
                    European Communities                            the prescribed loading schedule, a fact of which the
                        Case T-l 86/96                              applicant apprised the Commission on repeated occasions.
                         ( 97/C 26/17)                              ( 1 ) OJ No L 62, 13 . 3 . 1996 .
                                                                    ( 2 ) OJ No L 30 , 8 . 2 . 1996 .
                 (Language of the case: Dutch)
 An action against the Commission of the European
 Communities was brought before the Court of First
 Instance of the European Communities on 21 November
 1996 by Mutual Aid Administration Services NV, of                  Action brought on 26 November 1996 by Salini
Antwerp (Belgium ), represented by J. Tritsmans, of the             Costruttori SpA against the Commission of the European
                                                                                                  Communities
Antwerp Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg
at the Chambers of R. Faltz, 6 rue Heinrich Heine .                                             (Case T-l 87/96 )
                                                                                                  ( 97/C 26/18 )
The applicant claims that the Court should:
                                                                                     (Language of the case: French)
— annul the contested decision, a copy of which is
     included among the documents annexed to the present
     application, and accordingly rule that the applicant          An action against the Commission of the European
     was entitled, when the account was being settled, to          Communities was brought before the Court of First
     Bfrs 836 328 and was entitled to US $ 41 000 in               Instance of the European Communities on 26 November
     respect of the costs of chartering the third ship, the         1996 by Salini Costruttori SpA, whose registered office
     Tuschino,                                                     is at Rome, represented by Jean-Pierre Cuny, of the
                                                                   Versailles Bar ( France ).
— accordingly order the Commission of the European
     Communities to pay to the applicant Bfrs 644 385              The applicant claims that the Court should :
     (that is to say, Bfrs 836 328 less the amount of
     Bfrs 191 970 already granted by the contested
                                                                   — annul the contested decision .
     decision ) and US $ 41 000, plus interest calculated on
     the basis of the current statutory interest rate in
     Belgium of 7 % per annum as from 1 September 1 996 ,
                                                                   Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
— order the Commission to pay the costs of the
     proceedings .                                                 By a complaint of 3 April 1996 , the applicant informed
                                                                   the Commission of the serious discrimination which it had
                                                                   suffered, as had all the other undertakings in the
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                construction industry established in the Mezzogiorno, as a
                                                                   result of the Law on projects in the Mezzogiorno, adopted
                                                                   by the Decree of the President of the Italian Republic of
By Regulation ( EC ) No 449/96 of 12 March 1996 ( a ), the         6 March 1978 . In that complaint, the applicant considers
Commission initiated an open tendering procedure                   that it is paradoxical that the Law creates conditions less
concerning transport for the free supply to Armenia and            favourable to local undertakings than to those which,
Azerbaijan of fruit juice, fruit jams and common wheat             coming from other regions or other countries of the
flour.                                                             Union, undertake activities in the relevant areas of
                                                                   the Mezzogiorno . Moreover, that Law allows such
                                                                   undertakings to compete in Italy, at an advantage in
When the ships were being loaded, problems arose                   relation to undertakings of the Mezzogiorno and, in
because the packaging of the products did not meet the             view of the interpretation of the Italian authorities,
requirements of Commission Regulation (EC ) No 228/96              undertakings originating in the Mezzogiorno or which
of 7 February 1996 ( 2). The applicant was for that reason         have long been active there are, alone, penalized. For that
obliged to provide a third ship.                                   reason the applicant requests in particular that the
                                                                   Commission adopt a decision with regard to the Italian
                                                                   Republic on the basis of Articles 93 and 101 of the EC
The Commission also imposed fines on the applicant for             Treaty.
late shipment. The applicant claims that the Commission
itself failed from the outset to comply with the shipment
programme laid down in Regulation ( EC ) No 449/96 . It            By way of the contested act of 26 September 1996 the
should be borne in mind that separate invitations to               Commission informed the applicant that a measure which