CELEX: C2002/109/62
Language: en
Date: 2002-05-04 00:00:00
Title: Case C-76/02: Action brought on 5 March 2002 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Republic of Austria

4.5.2002               EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                        C 109/37
Action brought on 5 March 2002 by the Commission                       Action brought on 13 March 2002 by the Commission of
of the European Communities against the Republic of                      the European Communities against the Italian Republic
                             Austria
                         (Case C-76/02)                                                          (Case C-87/02)
                        (2002/C 109/62)
                                                                                                (2002/C 109/63)
An action against the Republic of Austria was brought before
the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 5 March
2002 by the Commission of the European Communities,
represented by Götz zur Hausen, Legal Adviser, with an                 An action against the Italian Republic was brought before the
address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Luis Escobar        Court of Justice of the European Communities on 13 March
Guerrero, of the Commission’s legal Service, Wagner Centre             2002 by the Commission of the European Communities,
C 254, Kirchberg.                                                      represented by Michel Van Beek and Roberto Amorosi, acting
                                                                       as Agents.
The applicant claims that the Court should:
                                                                       The applicant claims that the Court should:
(1) declare that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and
      administrative provisions necessary in order to comply
      with Commission Directive 2000/71/EC of 7 November               —     Declare that, by the failure of the Abruzzo regional
      2000 to adapt the measuring methods as laid down in                    authority to check whether the plans for the construction
      Annexes I, II, III and IV to Directive 98/70/EC of the                 of a road to by-pass the city of Teramo (the ‘Lotto Zero’
      European Parliament and of the Council to technical                    project — an alternative to the SS 80 trunk road between
      progress as foreseen in Article 10 of that Directive (1), or           Termano and Giulianova), which fell within the scope of
      at any rate to communicate the same to the Commission,                 Annex II to Directive 85/337/EEC (1), required to be
      the Republic of Austria has failed to fulfil its obligations           assessed for its effects on the environment, in accordance
      under Article 2(1) of that directive;                                  with Articles 5 to 10 of the directive, the Italian Republic
                                                                             has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4(2) of
                                                                             Directive 85/337/EEC;
(2) order the Republic of Austria to pay the costs.
                                                                       —     Order the Italian Republic to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The binding nature of the third paragraph of Article 249 EC            Pleas in law and main arguments
and the first paragraph of Article 10 EC is such as to require
Member States to whom directives are addressed to transpose
such directives into national law so as to give full effect to
them before the expiry of the time-limit for transposition. The
time-limit prescribed in Article 2(1) of Directive 2000/71             Article 4(1) of the directive provides that projects of the classes
expired on 1 January 2000 but the Republic of Austria has not          listed in Annex I are to be made subject to an assessment in
adopted the requisite provisions.                                      accordance with Articles 5 to 10. According to Article 4(2),
                                                                       projects of the classes listed in Annex II are to be made subject
                                                                       to an assessment, in accordance with Articles 5 to 10, where
                                                                       Member States consider that their characteristics so require.
(1) OJ 2000 L 287, p. 46.                                              To that end, the Member States may inter alia specify certain
                                                                       types of projects as being subject to an assessment or may
                                                                       establish the criteria and/or thresholds necessary to determine
                                                                       which of the projects of the classes listed in Annex II are to be
                                                                       subject to an assessment in accordance with Articles 5 to 10.