CELEX: C2001/369/17
Language: en
Date: 2001-12-22 00:00:00
Title: Case C-429/01: Action brought on 5 November 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities against French Republic

C 369/10                EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                      22.12.2001
—     Order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.                       2001 by the Commission of the European Communities,
                                                                           represented by G. zur Hausen, acting as Agent, assisted by
                                                                           H. van der Woude and V. Landes, avocats, with an address for
                                                                           service in Luxembourg.
Pleas in law and main arguments
—     The mere fact of having designated a number of special
                                                                           The applicant claims that the Court should:
      protection areas does not in itself constitute a complete
      and proper transposition of Article 4(1) and (2) of the
      directive since such designation is only intended to
      implement the general obligations enshrined in the                   —     Declare that, by failing to transpose completely Articles
      directive. On the other hand, no legally binding provision                 14(a) and (b), 15(1) and (2), 16(1) and 19(2), (3) and (4)
      applicable in the territory of one or other region provides                of Council Directive 90/219/EEC of 23 April 1990
      for the classification as special protection areas of the                  on the contained use of genetically modified micro-
      most appropriate areas in terms of number and surface                      organisms (1), and by failing to transpose the provisions
      area for the conservation of the bird species listed in                    of the directive for certain contained use by the Ministry
      Annex I and of the regularly occurring migratory species                   of Defence, the French Republic has failed to fulfil its
      not listed in Annex I, as regards their breeding, moulting                 obligations under that directive and Article 249 of the EC
      and wintering areas and staging posts along their                          Treaty; and
      migration routes.
—     The delimitation of the special protection areas by those            —     Order the French Republic to pay the costs.
      regions cannot be relied upon as against third parties in
      the absence of their publication and in the absence of
      provisions of national law providing expressly that the
      publication of the order without accompanying maps is
      to have no effect on their binding nature vis-à-vis third
      parties.
                                                                           Pleas in law and main arguments
—     So far as the Flemish Region is concerned, the special
      protection areas do not have the protection and conser-
      vation status provided for by Community law in the field,
      since the only measures which are applicable are either
                                                                           The Commission takes the view that the implementing
      sparse and disjointed or, on the contrary, are of an
                                                                           measures communicated by the French authorities amount to
      extremely general nature having exactly the same value
                                                                           only incomplete transposition of certain provisions of the
      within as outwith the special protection areas.
                                                                           directive, namely:
(1) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conser-
    vation of wild birds (OJ 1979 L 103, p. 1).                            —     Article 14(a), in so far as it concerns the use of genetically
(2) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation               modified micro-organisms belonging to Groups I and II
    of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (OJ 1992 L 206,              for teaching, research and development, and in so far as
    p. 7).                                                                       it concerns installations other than those subject to
                                                                                 authorisation involving uses for industrial or non-com-
                                                                                 mercial purposes;
                                                                           —     Article 14(b), in so far as it concerns installations subject
                                                                                 to declaration and in so far as it concerns making
                                                                                 available to other Member States concerned information
Action brought on 5 November 2001 by the Commission                              on safety measures and on the correct behaviour to adopt
  of the European Communities against French Republic                            in the case of an accident;
                          (Case C-429/01)
                                                                           —     Article 15(1), in that the measures adopted by the French
                                                                                 authorities do not specify the list of information to be
                          (2001/C 369/17)                                        provided by the user;
                                                                           —     Article 15(2), in so far as it concerns the drawing up of a
An action against the French Republic was brought before the                     framework for the measures designed to alert any Member
Court of Justice of the European Communities on 5 November                       State liable to be affected by an accident;
 ---pagebreak--- 22.12.2001           EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                        C 369/11
—   Article 16(1), in so far as it concerns the drawing up of a        —    Article 19(4), in so far as it concerns public access to
    framework for consulting with other Member States and                   certain non-confidential data;
    informing the Commission as soon as possible of any
    accident;
                                                                       —    all the provisions of the directive in so far as they concern
—   Article 19(2), in so far as it concerns the duty of an                  confined use by the Ministry of Defense.
    operator to provide verifiable justification when seeking
    confidential treatment of certain information contained
    in its application for approval;                                   (1) OJ 1990 L 117, p. 1.