CELEX: C2003/239/05
Language: en
Date: 2003-10-04 00:00:00
Title: Case C-332/03: Action brought on 29 July 2003 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Portuguese Republic

4.10.2003              EN                        Official Journal of the European Union                                               C 239/3
—      Infringement of Article 43(3) of the Rules of Procedure           Further, is the use in a bank, as a credit institution, of balances
       of the Court of First Instance: the applicant submits that        on a deposit account, funds being placed in that account, as
       in the present case the appeal was not accepted on the            provided for in Decision 1097/1959 of the Monetary Com-
       grounds of alleged failure to observe the period of               mittee referred to in this judgment (with the proceeds of
       confirmation, rather than the procedural time-limit which         imported foreign currency, and so forth), as deposits in
       was complied with by transmission of the fax.                     national currency, convertible into foreign currency, governed
                                                                         by Article 4 of that same directive, List D and item IX of the
                                                                         Nomenclature, which reads: ‘Opening and placing of funds on
—      Infringement of Article 43(6) of the Rules of Procedure           current or deposit accounts, repatriation or use of balances on
       of the Court of First Instance: the applicant submits, in         current or deposit accounts with credit institutions’, as that
       accordance with the principle of proportionality, that to         provision stands according to its spirit and the purpose sought
       the existing procedural time-limit, extended by ten days          by that provision?
       on account of distance, may be added ten additional days
       in order to validate an application and a list of annexes
       previously sent by fax.
                                                                         (1 ) English special edition: Series I Chapter 1959-1962 p. 49.
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Areiou Pagou                   Action brought on 29 July 2003 by the Commission
by order of that Court of 31 March 2003 in the case of                   of the European Communities against the Portuguese
        Trapeza tis Ellados AE against Banque Artesia                                                    Republic
                         (Case C-329/03)                                                            (Case C-332/03)
                         (2003/C 239/04)                                                            (2003/C 239/05)
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                   An action against the Portuguese Republic was brought before
European Communities by order of the Areiou Pagou                        the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 29 July
(Supreme Court of Cassation) of 31 March 2003, received at               2003 by the Commission of the European Communities,
the Court Registry on 28 July 2003, for a preliminary ruling             represented by Thomas van Rijn and Ana Maria Alves Vieira,
in the case of Trapeza tis Ellados AE against Banque Artesia on          acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
the following question:
Are (a) bonds issued by a bank in the form of a limited                  The applicant claims that the Court should:
company belonging, by virtue of its shares, to the State, with a
maturity of one year from issue which are dealt in on the
                                                                         1)     declare that:
money market, where they are quoted, or (b) bonds issued by
a bank in the form of a limited company with a maturity of
one year from issue which are dealt in on the money market,                     —     by failing to adopt appropriate rules for the use of
where they are quoted, governed by Article 4 of the First                             the quotas allocated to it for the fishing years from
Directive of the Council of the European Communities (921/                            1994 to 1996;
60) ( 1), List D and item VI of the Nomenclature, which reads
‘Short-term investments in Treasury bills and other securities
normally dealt in on the money market’, as that provision                       —     by failing to ensure compliance with Community
stands according to its spirit and the purpose sought or is to                        legislation in the field of conservation, by means of
be interpreted under a possible doctrine in international trade                       sufficient supervision of fishing activities and adqua-
of common experience, to the effect that securities such as                           te inspection of the fishing fleet and of the unloading
the one-year bonds in ETVA at issue constitute short-term                             and recording of catches in the fishing years 1994 to
investments?                                                                          1996;
 ---pagebreak--- C 239/4                EN                         Official Journal of the European Union                                          4.10.2003
      —     by failing to impose a provisional prohibition of             Action brought on 31 July 2003 by Portuguese Republic
            fishing on vessels flying its flag or registered in its           against Commission of the European Communities
            territory when the quota allocated to it had been
            exhausted, and by having finally prohibited fishing
            when its quota had already been greatly exceeded in
            the fishing years 1994 to 1996;                                                        (Case C-335/03)
      —     by failing to bring criminal or administrative pro-
            ceedings against the captains or any other persons                                     (2003/C 239/06)
            responsible for overfishing;
      —     by failing to ensure the effective operation of a
            validation system which included cross-checking
            and verification of data by means of a computerised
            data-base,
                                                                          An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
                                                                          ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European
      the Portuguese Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations        Communities on 31 July 2003 by the Portuguese Republic,
      in the sphere of the management and monitoring of                   represented by Luís Fernandes, acting as Agent, and Carlos
      fishing quotas;                                                     Botelho Moniz and Eduardo Maia Cadete, lawyers, with an
                                                                          address for service in Luxembourg.
2)    order the Portuguese Republic to pay the costs.
                                                                          The applicant claims that the Court should:
Pleas in law and main arguments
Portugal has failed to fulfil completely its Community obli-              —     annul Commission Decision No 2003/364/EC ( 1) of
gations concerning rules for the use of its catch quotas,                       15 May 2003 excluding from Community financing
monitoring and inspection, proceedings against the fishermen                    certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under
in question and the setting-up of a computerised data-base.                     the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural
During the fishing years 1994 to 1996, the Portuguese                           Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) so far as it
Republic:                                                                       concerns expenditure relating to Portugal;
a)    infringed Article 9(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No               —     order the defendant institution to pay the costs.
      3760/92 of 20 December 1992 establishing a Com-
      munity system for fisheries and aquaculture, which
      requires the Member States to adopt rules for the use of
      the quotas allocated to them;
b)    failed to ensure sufficient monitoring of fishing activities
      and inspection of the fishing fleet and the unloading and           Pleas in law and main arguments
      recording of catches;
                                                                          —     Error in law as a result of the misapplication of Article 6(5)
c)    infringed Article 21 of Council Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                                of Regulation (EEC) No 3887/92. The Portuguese Govern-
      2847/93 which lays down obligations relating to suspen-
                                                                                ment is of the view that that rule was complied with in
      sion of fishing;
                                                                                the year in question, since applications for ‘animal’ aid
                                                                                and the relevant checks must be understood and assessed
d)    infringed the obligation to bring criminal or administrat-                from the point of view of the unicity of the holding, that
      ive proceedings against the natural or legal persons                      is, taken globally ‘animal’ aid schemes as a whole
      responsible for overfishing;                                              (rather than each of the schemes independently, as the
                                                                                Commission appears to maintain). Thus:
e)    infringed Article 19(1) and (2) of Regulation No 2847/
      93, which requires the Member States to establish a
      validation system comprising, in particular, cross-check-                 —     Portugal adopted an approach centring on holdings,
      ing and verification of data resulting from those obli-                         devising an integrated application common to the
      gations and to create a computerised data-base in which                         various ‘animal’ aid schemes available under the
      those data are stored.                                                          EAGGF Guarantee section, in the context of which
                                                                                      the checks are carried out. In the year in question,
                                                                                      the minimum percentage of lawful applications were
                                                                                      checked on the spot during the retention period.