CELEX: C1995/299/24
Language: en
Date: 1995-11-11 00:00:00
Title: ORDER OF THE COURT of 29 September 1995 in Case C-2/94 SA: Empresa Nacional de Urânio SA (ENU) v. Commission of the European Communities (Request for authorization to seize assets of the Community in Portugal)

No C 299/ 14           EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                    11 . 11 . 95
   without referring to requests for final payment                    ( Administrative Court for Customs and Excise ) of
   submitted after 31 March 1995 , is contrary to general             21 September 1995 , which was received at the Court
   principles of Community law, in particular :                       Registry on 29 September 1995 , for a preliminary ruling in
                                                                      the case of Road Air BV v. Inspector of Customs and Excise ,
   — the principle of the duty to act in good faith/principle         Hoofddorp , on the following question :
       of ( regional ) partnership ( Article 5 of the EC Treaty ):
       the Commission has failed to arrive at a definitive
                                                                      Is Part Four of the EEC Treaty , in particular Articles 1 32 (1 ),
       settlement of accounts in respect of the projects by            133 ( 1 ) and 134 , to be interpreted — regardless of any
       cooperating in good faith and engaging in effective            distinction between goods originating in the OCT and
       consultations with the Netherlands Government ,                goods originating in third countries , and thus by way of
       and has thus unlawfully omitted to take into                   derogation from Council Decisions 86/283/EEC (') and
       consideration requests for final payment submitted             91 / 1 10/EEC ( 2 ) — as meaning that no customs duties were
       as a precautionary measure . In so acting, the                 payable on 25 June 1991 on goods which , immediately
       Commission is contravening the objectives of the               before being imported into the Community, were in free
       ERDF ,                                                         circulation in an OCT country ?
   — the principle of the protection of legitimate
                                                                      (') OJ No L 175 , 1986 , p . 1 .
       expectations : in view of the fact that Article 1 2 of the     (-) OJ No L 58 , 1991 , p . 27 .
        1993 ERDF Regulation in any event infringes
       acquired rights to subsidies by providing that they
       are to cease definitively on 30 September 1995 , and
       in view also of the action taken by the Commission
       in the past, the Netherlands Government was
       justifiably entitled to expect that applications for
       payment submitted after 3 1 March 1 995 but in good                               ORDER OF THE COURT
       time before 30 September 1995 would be taken into                                   of 29 September 1995
       consideration in the final settlement of accounts ,
                                                                      in Case C-2/94 SA : Empresa Nacional de Urânio SA ( ENU )
                                                                             v . Commission of the European Communities ( l )
   — the principle of proportionality : taking all the
       circumstances into account, the Commission could               (Request for authorization to seize assets of the Community
       not reasonably have reached the contested decision                                         in Portugal)
       providing that assistance for projects already                                           ( 95 /C 299/24 )
       completed , amounting to Fl 15 606 552 , was no
       longer to be payable .
                                                                                    (Language of the case: Portuguese)
— In so far as the Commission 's interpretation of the
   aforementioned provision is correct, and the timelimit of          (Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be
   31 March 1995 which it lays down is justified , the                           published in the European Court Reports)
   Commission has unlawfully failed ( contrary , at least , to
   Article 12 of the 1993 ERDF Regulation and the                     In Case C-2/94 SA : Empresa Nacional de Uranio SA ( ENU ),
   abovementioned principles of Community law ) to treat              a company incorporated under Portuguese law, whose
   the letter of 21 March 1995 from the Ministry of                   registered office is in Urgeiri<;a , Nelas , represented by
   Economic Affairs as a request for final payment .                  Professor Joao Mota de Campos , of the Lisbon Bar, Rua
   Moreover, the Commission adopted the contested                     Antonio Enes, 16-5 " E, 1000 Lisbon v. Commission of the
   decision without first consulting the Committee of the             European Communities ( Agents : Antonio Caeiro and
   Fund . In addition, having regard to the foregoing, the            Jurgen Grunwald ) — application for authorization to seize
   Commission has failed, contrary to Article 1 90 of the FX          assets of the Community in Portugal — the Court,
   Treaty, to provide any or any adequate statement of                composed of G. C. Rodriguez Iglesias , President, F. A.
   reasons for the contested decision .                               Schockweiler, P. J. G. Kapteyn , C. Gulmann and P. Jann
                                                                       ( Presidents of Chambers ), G. F. Mancini , C. N. Kakouris ,
                                                                      J. C. Moitinho de Almeida , J. L. Murray, D. A. O. Edward
                                                                       ( Rapporteur ), J. -P. Puissochet, G. Hirsch and
                                                                       H. Ragnemalm, Judges ; A. La Pergola ; Advocate-General ;
                                                                       R. Grass, Registrar , made an order on 29 September 1 995 of
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tariefcommissie           which the operative part is as follows :
by order of that court of 21 September 1995 in the case
of Road Air BV v. Inspector of Customs and Excise,                      1 . there is no need to give a decision ;
                            Hoofddorp
                        ( Case C-3 10/95 )                             2 . the parties are to bear their own costs .
                          ( 95 /C 299/23 )
                                                                       (M O J No C 392 , 31 . 12 . 1994 .
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
European Communities by order of the Tariefcommissie