CELEX: C1998/327/51
Language: en
Date: 1998-10-24 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 14 July 1998 by Società Camar s.r.l. and Società Tico s.r.l. against Commission of the European Communities (Case T-117/98)

C 327/28              EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                    24.10.98
     Qualifications of General and Specialist Doctors in the         nature and effects of the rules applicable to specialist
     United Kingdom misrepresents the rules applicable to            medical practitioners in the United Kingdom from the
     specialist medical practitioners in the United Kingdom          persons subject to their jurisdiction in order to deprive
     in order not to promote the supply of specialist                them of their substance and thereby to sanction the illegal
     medical services by a category of medical practitioners         transfer of the status of Community Medical Specialist'
     who are qualified by law to practise the regulated              from one category of medical practitioners Ð those who
     medical profession as licensed specialist medical               are qualified by law to practise the regulated medical
     practitioners and who have completed the prescribed             profession as licensed specialist medical practitioners
     specialist medical training at Community level and              recognised at Community level Ð to another category of
     national level and thereby offer the minimum                    medical practitioners Ð those who are not qualified by
     safeguards required by community law for practising a           law to practise the regulated medical profession as
     medical specialty regulated by Community law as a               licensed specialist medical practitioners recognised at
     specialist medical practitioner;                                Community level.
                                                                     (1) OJ L 250, 19.9.1984, p. 17.
Ð order the defendant to pay compensation to be                      (2) Case T-235/95, OJ C 64, 2.3.1996, p. 19.
     determined by the Court ex aequo et bono or by an                   Case T-262/97, OJ C 370, 6.12.1997, p. 8.
     expert together with default interest at a rate to be               Case T-286/97, OJ C 7, 10.1.1998, p. 25.
                                                                     (3) Case C-148/96 P(R), (1996) ECR I-3883.
     fixed by the Court for the non-material damage
                                                                         Case C-78/97 P(R), (not published).
     suffered by the applicant, a specialist medical                     Case C-199/98 P(R), pending.
     practitioner in rheumatology recognised at Community
     level, and listed on the Specialist List, in so far as the
     defendant misrepresent the legal status of the category
     of medical practitioners legally entitled to practise as
     specialist medical practitioners recognised at
     Community level in the Citizens First Factsheet on the
     Recognition of Diplomas and Qualifications of
     General and Specialist Doctors in the United Kingdom            Action brought on 14 July 1998 by SocietaÁ Camar s.r.l.
     thereby tarnishing their professional reputation; and           and SocietaÁ Tico s.r.l. against Commission of the
                                                                                        European Communities
                                                                                             (Case T-117/98)
Ð order the defendant to pay the costs.
                                                                                              (98/C 327/51)
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                                  (Language of the case: Italian)
The applicant is a medical practitioner of British                   An action against the Commission of the European
nationality residing in the United Kingdom, who has                  Communities was brought before the Court of First
already brought several cases to the Court of First                  Instance of the European Communities on 14 July 1998
Instance of the European Communities (2) and the Court               by SocietaÁ Camar s.r.l. and SocietaÁ Tico s.r.l., represented
of Justice of the European Communities (3). He now                   by Wilma Viscardini DonaÁ, assisted by Mariano Paolin
claims having suffered damage caused by the                          and Simonetta DonaÁ, of the Padua Bar, with an address
Commission's failure to exercise the supervisory powers of           for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of Ernst
surveillance and control conferred on it by the EC Treaty            Arendt, Rue Mathias Hardt.
in accordance with the prescribed legal framework to
adopt the measures necessary under Article 162 of the EC
Treaty to ensure that both it and its departments operate            The applicants claim that the Court should:
in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty to
guarantee the information contained in the Citizens First
Factsheet on the Recognition of Diplomas and                         Ð annul, pursuant to Articles 173 and 174 of the EC
Qualifications of General and Specialist Doctors in the                   Treaty, the Commission decision Ð communicated by
United Kingdom is in conformity with Council Directive                    a letter from Franz Fischler, a Member of the
84/450/EEC of 10 September 1984 and thereby protect                       Commission, dated 23/24 April 1998 and received
the legitimate interests of the applicant.                                on 14 May 1998 Ð rejecting an application for
                                                                          adaptation of the tariff quota for imports of bananas,
                                                                          pursuant to Article 16(3) of Commission Regulation
The applicant submits that his damage derives from the                    (EEC) No 1442/93 (1);
illegal publication in breach of this Directive by the
Commission, of false information contained in the
Citizens First Factsheet on the Recognition of Diplomas              Ð order the Commission, pursuant to Article 178 and
and Qualifications of General and Specialist Doctors in                   the second paragraph of Article 215 of the EC Treaty,
the United Kingdom which conceals the Community                           to pay compensation for damage;
 ---pagebreak--- 24.10.98              EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                  C 327/29
Ð order the Commission to pay the costs.                             The applicants further claim breach of the principle of
                                                                     non-discrimination, in that in the regulations adopted to
                                                                     combat the difficulties caused by tropical storms in the
                                                                     Caribbean the Commission stated that the purpose of
                                                                     increasing the tariff quota was not only to ensure an
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                  adequate supply for the Community market but also to
                                                                     compensate traders forming associations of or directly
                                                                     representing the producers of damaged bananas. Inasmuch
                                                                     as Somalian bananas have not been given similar
                                                                     consideration, it must be held that the applicants have
The applicants in these proceedings, two firms belonging             suffered blatant discrimination since as a result of
to the DE NADAI group and involved in importing                      comparable exceptional circumstances they have suffered
Somalian bananas, challenge the Commission's refusal to              the loss of a large proportion of the bananas needed for
adapt the tariff quota for the fourth quarter of 1997 and            their own normal imports which they cannot offset by
for each of the first two quarters of 1998, pursuant to              access to the dollar zone through the Commission's refusal
Article 16(3) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 (2),             to provide for an adequate increase to the tariff quota.
so as to take account of the fact that fewer Somalian
bananas were available as a result of the floods which at
that period affected the areas of Somalia where the
principal banana plantations are situated.                           Lastly, the applicants allege misuse of powers in that the
                                                                     Commission failed to consider the factual grounds.
                                                                     (1) OJ L 142, 12.6.1993, p. 6.
In the contested decision the defendant denies that                  (2) OJ L 47, 25.2.1993, p. 1.
Article 16(3) is applicable for two reasons. First, while
application of that article requires that there should be a
shortfall in supplies to the Community market, the
competent department of the Commission has not
established any reduction in banana imports. Second,
because of unstable conditions in the infrastructures
relating to the loading, transport and export of the
products, it is not possible to attribute with any certainty
the reduced availability of Somalian bananas to the floods.          Action brought on 3 August 1998 by ALCE s.r.l. against
                                                                            the Commission of the European Communities
                                                                                            (Case T-120/98)
In support of their claims, the applicants first of all allege                                (98/C 327/52)
infringement of Article 16(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 404/
93. They consider in this respect that the word import' in
this article is meant to refer to the effect of exceptional
circumstances on imports of traditional ACP bananas only                             (Language of the case: Italian)
and not on imports generally. In their view, by means of
the application of Article 16(3), the Commission can both
remedy the supply-side deficit which occurs whenever
Community or traditional ACP production is reduced
because of unforeseen events and also enable operators               An action against the Commission of the European
who habitually trade in the areas or countries affected by           Communities was brought before the Court of First
those events to have temporary access to dollar-zone                 Instance of the European Communities on 3 August 1998
bananas. In any event, even if the Commission intended to            by ALCE s.r.l., represented by Fabio De Ciuceis, of the
refer to Community or ACP bananas, it should be noted                Salerno Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg at
that in accordance with Article 16(3) it is not necessary to         the Chambers of Franco Colussi, 36 Rue de Wiltz.
establish that imports have actually fallen but rather that
there are exceptional circumstances liable to affect
imports. So far as regards structural shortages of Somalian
exports, the applicants maintain that, contrary to the               The applicant claims that the Court should:
defendant's arguments, it is possible to distinguish how far
the floods were responsible for reducing possible exports
in comparison with the exports which might have been
achieved if those events had not occurred, by taking as a
basis exports from Somalia in 1996 before the floods took            Ð in the main, grant the application and consequently
place. Finally, they also allege infringement of Article 16(3)           declare the product called Lyostart' to be prepared
in that the procedure laid down in Article 27 was not used               culture media for developing micro-organisms' and
in this case.                                                            thus classify it under CN code 3821 00 00;