CELEX: C2000/176/26
Language: en
Date: 2000-06-24 00:00:00
Title: Case C-154/00: Action brought on 25 April 2000 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic

24.6.2000              EN                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                       C 176/15
The Commission of the European Communities claims that                  Action brought on 25 April 2000 by the Commission of
the Court should:                                                       the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic
— Declare that, by failing to transpose fully and correctly
    Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 on                                         (Case C-154/00)
    the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative
    provisions of the Member States regarding the protection
    of animals used for experimental and other scientific
    purposes (1), and in particular Articles 4, 7, 11, 12, 18 and                               (2000/C 176/26)
    22 thereof, the French Republic has failed to fulfil its
    obligations under that directive and under the Treaty
    establishing the European Community;
                                                                        An action against the Hellenic Republic was brought before
                                                                        the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 25 April
— Order the French Republic to pay the costs.                           2000 by the Commission of the European Communities,
                                                                        represented by Maria Patakia, of its Legal Service, with an
                                                                        address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos
                                                                        Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre,
Pleas in law and main arguments                                         Kirchberg.
— Failure to transpose Article 4 and incomplete transposition
    of Article 7(3) of the directive: the provisions and pro-
    cedures notified by the French authorities, taken as a              The Commission claims that the Court should:
    whole, cannot be regarded as correctly transposing Articles
    4 and 7(3). It is clear from the presentation given by the
    French authorities that the procedures employed by the              — declare that, by failing to lay down in the national law for
    Ministry of the Environment when reviewing an appli-                    the implementation of Directive 85/374/EEC (1) the lower
    cation for authorisation amount to nothing more than                    threshold of ECU 500 prescribed in Article 9(b) of
    administrative practice and cannot be regarded as consti-               that directive, the Hellenic Republic has only partially
    tuting proper performance of the obligations which, under               implemented Article 9(b) of Directive 85/374/EEC;
    Article 249 of the Treaty, fall upon the Member States to
    which the directive is addressed.
                                                                        — order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.
— Failure to transpose Article 11 of the directive: the
    Commission submits that Article 2(b) of Decree No 87-
    848 cannot be regarded as transposing Article 11 of the
    directive, in that the freeing of laboratory animals, within        Pleas in law and main arguments
    the meaning of the directive, is not governed by legally
    binding provisions.
— Incomplete transposition of Article 12(2) of the directive:           It is not open to a Member State to substitute its own
    no French provisions exist which call for the declaration           assessment with regard to the protection accorded to the
    or the authorisation required under Article 12(2) for               various interests by the Community legislature, and in particu-
    experiments which entail severe pain which is likely to be          lar it may not increase the strict liability of the producer
    prolonged.                                                          beyond the limits laid down by the directive.
— Failure to transpose Article 18(1) and (3) of the directive:
    there is nothing in the reply given by the French authorities       As the Commission also observes in its reasoned opinion, the
    to indicate that these provisions have been fully transposed.       lower threshold of ECU 500 which is prescribed in Article 9(b)
                                                                        of the directive is not optional or a ‘minimum protection
                                                                        clause’ but lays down a single and uniform system for all the
— Failure to transpose Article 22(1) of the directive: as regards       Member States, restricting the directive’s field of application to
    recognition of the validity of data generated by experiments        material damage which exceeds the abovementioned amount.
    carried out within the territory of another Member State,
    no definitive text has yet been sent to the Commission.
                                                                        (1) OJ L 210, 7.8.1985, p. 29.
(1) OJ 1986 L 358, p. 1.