CELEX: C2000/335/44
Language: en
Date: 2000-11-25 00:00:00
Title: Order of the President of the Court of 25 July 2000 in Case C-377/98 R: Kingdom of the Netherlands v European Parliament and Council of the European Union (Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Urgency — Directive 98/44/EC — Legal protection of biotechnological inventions)

C 335/24                EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                   25.11.2000
      ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT                                  The applicant claims that the Court should:
                           of 25 July 2000                                 1.    Annul Commission Decision 2000/362/EC (1) of 25 May
                                                                                 2000 on the total amount of Community aid for the
in Case C-377/98 R: Kingdom of the Netherlands v                                 eradication of classical swine fever in the Netherlands in
European Parliament and Council of the European                                  1997, in so far as the Community financial contribution
                               Union (1)                                         fixed for the eradication of classical swine fever in the
                                                                                 Netherlands in 1997 represents a reduction of 25 % in
                                                                                 the compensation paid to livestock farmers.
(Application for interim measures — Suspension of oper-
ation of a measure — Urgency — Directive 98/44/EC —
        Legal protection of biotechnological inventions)                   2.    Order the Commission to pay the costs.
                          (2000/C 335/44)
                                                                           Pleas in law and main arguments
                    (Language of the case: Dutch)                          —     Incorrect factual basis:
(Provisional translation: the definitive translation will be published           The absence of an approved contingency plan for classical
                   in the European Court Reports)                                swine fever is primarily a formal omission. There are no
                                                                                 relevant differences between the ‘Swine Fever Scenario’
                                                                                 applicable at the time of the swine fever crisis and the
In Case C-377/98 R: Kingdom of the Netherlands (Agent:
                                                                                 contingency plan subsequently approved by Commission
M.A. Fierstra), supported by Italian Republic (Agent: U. Leanza,
                                                                                 Decision 1999/246/EC of 30 March 1999.
assisted by D. Del Gaizo) v European Parliament (Agents:
J. Schoo and E. Vandenbosch) and Council of the European
Union (Agents: R. Gosalbo Bono, G. Houttuin and A. Lo Mona-                      The Netherlands Government is of the opinion that
co), supported by Commission of the European Communities                         the Commission’s view that classical swine fever was
(Agents: T. van Rijn and K. Banks) — application for suspen-                     discovered too late in the Netherlands is factually incor-
sion of operation of Directive 98/44/EC of the European                          rect.
Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 1998 on the legal
protection of biotechnological inventions (OJ 1998 L 213,                        The Commission fails to make clear what it understands
p. 13) — the President of the Court has made an order on                         by ‘too many’ animal movements with insufficient
25 July 2000, the operative part of which is as follows:                         guarantee of hygiene in context of the buying-up of pigs
                                                                                 and how it comes to that conclusion. The application of
1.    The application for interim measures is dismissed.                         the buying-up rules in Article 1 of Regulation
                                                                                 No 413/97/EC inevitably resulted in transport move-
2.    The costs are reserved.                                                    ments within the isolated zone. Yet those movements
                                                                                 arose directly from compliance with Regulation 413/97.
(1) OJ C 378 of 5.12.1998.
                                                                                 Even the transport movements resulting from the buying-
                                                                                 up arrangement which, apart from Regulation
                                                                                 No 413/97/EC, was also provided for by the Netherlands
                                                                                 authorities, were necessary and not ‘too many’ in number.
                                                                                 The Commission is right when it claims that the areas
                                                                                 delimited and preventively evacuated around each source
                                                                                 of infection were not uniform in size. The conclusion
Action brought on 31 July 2000 by the Kingdom of the                             which it draws from that fact, namely, that it was the
Netherlands against the Commission of the European                               result of inconsistent management, is not correct. The
                            Communities                                          radius of the sanitary slaughter zone was determined on
                                                                                 the basis of the specific circumstances of each case. It is
                          (Case C-293/00)                                        not laid down in any Community directive that a radius
                                                                                 of 1 000 metres should be applied in the event of
                                                                                 preventive sanitary slaughter, and at the time of the
                          (2000/C 335/45)                                        sanitary slaughter operations there was no reason to
                                                                                 regard a radius of 500 metres as insufficient. Likewise,
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                        the Commission’s claim that the authorities waited too
ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European                     long before carrying out preventive sanitary slaughter is
Communities on 31 July 2000 by the Kingdom of the                                incorrect. In so far as they may have waited longer than
Netherlands, represented by Marc Fierstra, Head of the Euro-                     was desirable, that was directly connected with the
pean Law Department, and Jantine van Bakel, of the European                      destruction capacity. In any event, from June 1997
Law Department, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague,                   onwards, sanitary slaughter always took place in or
acting as Agents.                                                                within seven days.