CELEX: C1995/074/08
Language: en
Date: 1995-03-25 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by order of the Juzgado Central de lo Penal de la Audiencia Nacional of 18 January 1995 in criminal proceedings against Oscar Weg (Case C-20/95)

No C 74/6           1 EN |               Official Journal of the European Communities                                   25 . 3 . 95
 (c) by the Commission delegate in not paying the Somalian           Action brought on 2 February 1995 by the Federal Republic
      part of the invoices for which the Italian part had been       of Germany against the Commission of the European
      paid.                                                                                   Communities
                                                                                             (Case C-23/95 )
 The Appellant submits that the Court of First Instance's
 assessment of its claim was wrong and that its dismissal of                                  ( 95/C 74/09 ) •
 the claim was unfounded .
 The Appellant also submits that the Court of First Instance         An action against the Commission of the European
 was wrong in considering that the Appellant had not                 Communities was brought before the Court of Justice of the
 produced evidence that the Commission's administration              European Communities on 2 February 1995 by the Federal
 failed to operate correctly.                                        Republic of Germany, represented by Ernst Roder
                                                                     (Ministerialrat), Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft, Bonn,
 Second head of claim — the failure of the Commission to             D-53107.
pay compensation following termination of the contract
The Commission did not give adequate reasoning for its
 decisions and thus infringed the general principle of law laid      The applicant claims that the Court should :
 down in Article 190 of the Treaty.
The Appellant submits that Article 60 of the Financial              — declare void Articles 1 ( 2) and 2 of Commission
 Regulation applicable to the Fifth European Development                 Regulation (EEC ) No 2791/94 of 16 November 1994 on
 Fund and Article 93 ( 1 ) of the General Conditions were                the exceptional allocation of a quantity additional to the
incorrectly interpreted and applied and that there was an                tariff quota for imports of bananas in 1994 as a result of
incorrect appreciation of the Commission's duty to meet the              tropical storm Debbie (*);
Appellant's claims.
The Appellant also submits that Article 60 of the                   — order the defendant to pay the costs.
abovementioned Financial Regulation imposes on the
Commission a general duty to safeguard the interests of
Community enterprises working in unfavourable financial
environments and that the Commission failed to discharge             Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
this duty.
Finally, the Appellant contends that the Court of First              Lack of a legal basis for the way in which the additional
Instance incorrectly assessed the fault committed by the            quantities have been allocated: Article 16 ( 3 ) of Council
Commission which led to the damage existing at the time of
termination of the contract.
                                                                    Regulation (EEC ) No 404/93 may support the increase in
                                                                    the import tariff quotas, but not a departure from the
                                                                    method of calculation laid down in Article 19 ( 1 ) of Council
                                                                    Regulation ( EEC ) No 404/93 on the common organization
                                                                    of the market in bananas; precisely in the event of an
                                                                    increase in the tariff quota in 'exceptional circumstances',
Reference for a preliminary ruling by order of the Juzgado          Article 19 (4) of the Council Regulation provides that the
Central de lo Penal de la Audiencia Nacional of 18 January          allocation should be made by the method laid down in
      1995 in criminal proceedings against Oscar Weg                Article 19 ( 1 ). If the Commission considers that it is not
                          (Case C-20/95 )                           adequate to compensate for the damage done by the storm,
                           ( 95/C 74/08 )                           it could ask the Council to alter the Regulation. Since the
                                                                    Commission is derogating from a Regulation expressly
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the              adopted by the Council, the measures cannot be regarded as
European Communities by order of the Juzgado Central de             implementing measures within the meaning of Article 20 of
lo Penal de la Audiencia Nacional ( Central Criminal Court,         the Council Regulation, either. Article 30 of the Council
National High Court) of 18 January 1955 , which was                 Regulation contemplates transitional measures only in
received at the Court Registry on 30 January 1995 , for a           order to overcome difficulties experienced in adapting the
preliminary ruling in criminal proceedings against Oscar            existing national market organization to the new EC banana
Weg.                                                                market rules . Storm damage is not confined to the period of
                                                                    adaptation or transition from one market organization to
                                                                    another.
The questions referred by the Juzgado Central del lo Penal
de la Audiencia Nacional to the Court of Justice for a
preliminary ruling are identical with those in Joined Cases
C-163/94 and C-165/94 I 1 ).                                        (In the alternative) Insufficient grounds (Article 190 of the
                                                                    EC Treaty). There is no indication of the extent of the
(!) OJ No C 218 , 6 . 8 . 1994, p . 14 .                            damage. If the damage is lost production in the amount of
                                                                    the additional quota the compensation is more than is
                                                                    necessary, because importers obtain more profit from