CELEX: C1995/137/75
Language: en
Date: 1995-06-03 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 27 March 1995 by Expeditie- en Controlebedrijf Codirex BV against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-89/95)

No C 137/34           EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                      3 . 6 . 95
      determine, or state reasons for, the total amount of the        Action brought on 27 March 1995 by Expeditie- en
      fines imposed, and, in particular, the amount of the fine       Controlebedrijf Codirex BV against the Commission of the
      imposed on the applicant.                                                           European Communities
                                                                                               ( Case T-89/95 )
(') OJ No L 343 , 30 . 12 . 1994 , p . 1 .                                                       ( 95/C 137/75 )
                                                                                      (Language of the case: Dutch)
                                                                      An action against the Commission of the European
Action brought on 23 March 1995 by Blue Circle Industries             Communities was brought before the Court of First
pic against the Commission of the European                            Instance of the European Communities on 27 March 1995
                           Communities                                by Expeditie- en Controlebedrijf Codirex BV, Rotterdam,
                                                                      represented by P. V. F. Bos and N. J. Helder, of the
                        ( Case T-88/95 )
                                                                      Rotterdam Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg
                          ( 95/C 137/74 )                             at the Chambers of M. Loesch, 8 Rue Zithe .
               (Language of the case: English)                        The applicant claims that the Court should :
An action against the Commission of the European                      ( a ) declare the action admissible;
Communities was brought before the Court of First
Instance of the European Communities on 23 March 1995                 ( b ) annul the decision or measure adopted by the
by Blue Circle Industries pic , represented by Mr Jeremy                    Commission on 14 November 1994 in relation to the
Lever QC ., Mr Nicholas Green, Ms Jessica Simor, Ms Laura                   Netherlands ( reference No REM : 15/94 );
Mc Roberts, Ms Sara Vaughan with an address for service in
Luxembourg at the chambers of Elvinger & Hoss , 15 , Cote             (c ) order the Commission to pay the costs .
d'Eich, L-1450 Luxembourg.
                                                                      Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
The applicant claims that the Court should :
— declare the Commission's Decision 94/815/EC (cases
                                                                      Between 19 February 1981 and 23 June 1983 the applicant,
    IV/33.126 and 33.322 — Cement ) void and annul it in              as a customs forwarding agent, prepared declarations
    its entirety,
                                                                      relating to the import of poultry sections . By reason of
                                                                      subsequently discovered fraud on the part of the importer,
                                                                      the Netherlands customs authorities demanded from the
— in the alternative annul those parts of the Decision that
    the Court considers erroneous or unsafe and reduce the
                                                                      applicant payment of the outstanding additional
                                                                      agricultural levies . The applicant thereupon lodged an
    fine imposed on Blue Circle accordingly, and
                                                                      application for reimbursement pursuant to Article 13 of
                                                                      Council Regulation ( EEC ) No 1430/79 of 2 June 1979 ( 1 ).
— order the Commission to pay Blue Circle's costs .                   The Netherlands submitted that application to the
                                                                      Commission, which held, in its contested decision, that the
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                   remission of the import duties was not justified .
The applicant submits that the Commission has failed to               The action, which has been brought under Article 173 of the
establish to the requisite legal standard , that is to a degree of    EC Treaty, is based inter alia on the following grounds:
certainty that goes beyond any reasonable doubt, that the
allegations made against it are well founded .                       — infringement of the Commission's procedural rules, in
                                                                           that the decision was not signed by the Commissioner
Secondly, the applicant maintains that the Decision was                    responsible for customs matters,
adopted on the basis of an incorrect procedure and an
incorrect approach to the evidence. In its submission, the           — infringement of the right to a fair hearing . As the party
Decision should be annulled , because the errors of                        directly entitled to the benefit of remission of
procedure — by their very nature — throw serious doubt on                  agricultural levies, the applicant should have been heard
the validity of the Decision and cannot be rectified at this               in the proceedings,
stage .
                                                                     — infringement of Article 13 of Regulation (EEC )
Subsidiarily, the applicant contests the level of the fine; it             No 1430/79 . The Commission wrongly concluded that
contends on that score that the Commission has erred in its
                                                                           no special situation had arisen within the meaning of
determination of the duration and gravity of the                           that provision. The applicant refers in that regard to the
infringements and in its finding that all of the infringements             following circumstances : discrepancy between the
were intentional and serious .
                                                                           principles underlying the applicable Netherlands rules
                                                                           and the Community rules in the matter, the acceptable
                                                                           nature of the invoice values in relation to the market
 ---pagebreak--- 3 . 6 . 95              EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 137/35
     prices prevailing at the time and the fact that it was             — order the defendant to pay the costs .
     impossible for a forwarding agent to verify the accuracy
     of answers given in declarations,                                  Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
— breach of the principle of proportionality. The                       The applicant, a former Commission official suffering total
     obligation deemed by the decision to be incumbent on               permanent invalidity, criticizes the Commission for failing
     the forwarding agent, requiring him to examine the                 to disclose to him certain detail concerning his state of
     accuracy of the information supplied by the client for the         health, in particular for not advising him in due time of the
     purposes of the declaration and to ensure that the client          illness diagnosed by its doctors, and for keeping him in a
     is not acting fraudulently, is disproportionate,                   post incompatible with his state of health .
— infringement of Article 6 of the European Convention
                                                                        He states that, being afflicted with an obstructive
     on Human Rights .
                                                                        bronco-pneumopathic condition, the applicant applied for
(M OJ No L 175 , 12 . 7. 1979 , p . 1 .
                                                                        retirement on grounds of invalidity under the second
                                                                        paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations and it was
                                                                        not until 27 March 1987, nearly six years after being lodged,
                                                                        that that application was examined by the Invalidity
                                                                        Committee, which concluded that he was not suffering from
Action brought on 29 March 1995 by Walter Gill against                  an occupational illness . It was only during that procedure
        the Commission of the European Communities                      that the applicant learned that the Commission's medical
                                                                        officers had , in particular when examining him prior to
                          ( Case T-90/95 )                              recruitment, diagnosed a chronic pulmonary illness .
                            ( 95/C 137/76 )
                                                                        He claims in particular, in that regard, that, by failing to
                 (Language of the case: French)                         inform him or his doctor of the results of the examinations
                                                                        carried out by its doctors, the Commission unlawfully
An action against the Commission of the European                        deprived him of the opportunity of deciding, in full
Communities was brought before the Court of First                       knowledge of the facts , whether or not to accept
Instance of the European Communities on 29 March 1995                   employment of a kind which might aggravate his state of
by Walter Gill, of Sudbury (United Kingdom ), represented               health .
by Jean-Noel Louis , Thierry Demaseure and Ariane Tornel,
of the Brussels Bar, with an address for service in                     Furthermore, in view of the incoherence of the statement of
                                                                        the reasons on which the successive decisions of the
Luxembourg at the office of Fiduciaire Myson Sari, 1 Rue
Glesener .                                                              appointing authority were based and the changes in the
                                                                        versions thereof occurring in the course of the various
The applicant claims that the Court should :                            procedures, there was what in reality amounted to a total
                                                                        lack of any statement of reasons .
— annul the Commission decision of 26 September 1994
     expressly rejecting his claim for compensation of                  Finally, since the appointing authority did not supply to the
     10 May 1994 under Article 90 ( 1 ) of the Staff                    applicant, despite an express request from his adviser,
     Regulations,                                                       specific information regarding the measures adopted by it in
                                                                        order to preserve his anonymity, and having regard to the
— annul, so far as necessary, the Commission decision of                documents     disclosed     to  him  in  the  course   of the
     28 December 1994 expressly rejecting his complaint and             pre-litigation procedure , the applicant can but conclude that
     his more detailed complaint,                                       no proper measure was taken and that his right to respect of
                                                                        his private life was scornfully disregarded by the
— order the defendant:                                                  administration .
     — to pay, by way of compensation for material and
          non-material          damage      suffered      through
          non-disclosure of information as to his state of
          health, a sum equal to eight years ' remuneration to
          which he would have been entitled if he had not been
                                                                        Action brought on 29 March 1995 by Lieve De Nil and
          obliged , as a result of the successive wrongful acts         Christiane Impens against the Council of the European
          committed , to apply for retirement on grounds of                                            Union
          invalidity,
                                                                                               ( Case T-91/95 )
     — to pay compensatory interest on that sum at the rate                                      ( 95/C 137/77 )
          of 8 % per annum as from the date of his
          application,
                                                                                       (Language of the case: French)
     — to pay the applicant the sum of ECU 10 000 , by way
          of redress for the non-material damage suffered as a          An action against the Council of the European Union was
          result of the fact that, without reservation and              brought before the Court of First Instance of the European
          against his will, his application and complaint were          Communities on 29 March 1995 by Lieve De Nil and
          made public,                                                  Christiane Impens, of Wolvertem and Brussels (Belgium ),