CELEX: C2000/176/14
Language: en
Date: 2000-06-24 00:00:00
Title: Case C-132/00: Action brought on 7 April 2000 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic

C 176/8                EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                      24.6.2000
The applicant claims that the Court should:                              — Infringement of Article 87(3)(c) EC: the Commission
                                                                             maintains that any aid the amount of which depends on
                                                                             the quantities produced must be regarded as operating aid
1. annul the Commission’s decision of 22 December 1999
                                                                             which is incompatible with the common market, since it
    concerning aid for horticultural products in Extremadura
                                                                             has no lasting effect on the development of the sector in
    in the 1997/98 marketing year;
                                                                             question. However, the aid neither has, nor is intended to
                                                                             have, the effect of stimulating the production of vegetables,
2. order the defendant institution to pay the costs.                         since it was granted on the basis not of the quantity of
                                                                             vegetables produced but of the quantity intended for
                                                                             industrial processing.
Pleas in law and main arguments
— Infringement of Articles 253 EC and 87(1) EC, on account
    of the absence of a statement of reasons concerning the
    effect on trade between Member States and non-fulfilment
    of the criterion of the existence of such an effect on trade:
    the contested decision lacks even the minimum statement
    of reasons which must be given regarding the effect on
    trade between Member States of aid granted in a form
    which distorts or threatens to distort competition in the
    common market.
                                                                         Action brought on 7 April 2000 by the Commission of
— Infringement of Article 87(3)(a) EC, in conjunction with               the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic
    Article 253 EC: the Commission considers that the dero-
    gation contained in Article 87(3)(a) EC is inapplicable
    because the aid was granted not as regional aid but as
    operating aid for the agricultural sector. The Commission’s                                    (Case C-132/00)
    reasoning is inconsistent. The objectives assigned by
    Decree 84/1993 to the grant of incentives for horticultural
    products intended for industrial processing expressly
                                                                                                   (2000/C 176/14)
    include:
    — adapting production to market requirements in such a
         way as to ensure the most efficient use of resources,           An action against the Hellenic Republic was brought before
                                                                         the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 7 April
                                                                         2000 by the Commission of the European Communities,
    — encouraging diversification of alternative forms of                represented by Lena Ström, Legal Adviser in its Legal Service,
         irrigation, and                                                 and Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, a national expert on
                                                                         secondment to its Legal Service, with an address for service in
                                                                         Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its
    — promoting development of cultivation having wide-
                                                                         Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.
         spread social effects.
    The aid is intended to promote economic development in
    a region where the standard of living is low and there is            The Commission claims that the Court should:
    serious unemployment. It has a clear social purpose, in that
    it seeks to introduce stable relations between producers
    and processors, protecting them by means of officially               1. declare that, by failing to enact and to notify to the
    approved contracts for the sale and purchase of raw                      Commission, within the time-limit laid down, the measures
    materials and thereby ensuring supplies to the processing                which it was obliged to adopt in order to comply with its
    industries and the location of those industries in the                   obligations under Article 7 of Council Directive
    production areas.                                                        75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste (OJ 1975 L 194,
                                                                             p. 39), as amended by Council Directive 91/156/EEC of
                                                                             18 March 1991 (OJ 1991 L 78, p. 32), under Article 6 of
    In view of the foregoing, the Commission should have                     Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on
    reasoned that the aid did not fall within the scope of                   hazardous waste (OJ 1991 L 377, p. 20) and under
    Article 87(3)(a) EC, despite the fact that the measures                  Article 14 of European Parliament and Council Directive
    concerned are specific rather than general. It should also,              94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packag-
    at the very least, have provided justification for its decision,         ing waste (OJ 1994 L 365, p. 10), the Hellenic Republic
    adopted in the exercise of its discretion, not to authorise              has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EC Treaty;
    small-scale aid designed to mitigate an abnormally serious
    situation within the Community. By failing to do so, it has
    infringed Article 253 EC.                                            2. order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.
 ---pagebreak--- 24.6.2000             EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                           C 176/9
Pleas in law and main arguments                                         — Since that charge is due even where there is no registration
                                                                             to be made in practice and at the same rate regardless of
                                                                             the number of registrations to be made, the basis for its
In accordance with the third paragraph of Article 249 EC (ex                 payment is not the performance of a single operation
Article 189 of the EC Treaty), directives are binding, as to the             (registration of a single instrument) but a series of activities
result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which they                  (involved in keeping the register of companies) intended
are addressed. Under the first paragraph of Article 10 EC (ex                to enable companies to register instruments whose regis-
Article 5 of the EC Treaty), Member States are to take all                   tration is required by the Civil Code following registration
appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure               of the constituent instrument;
fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty or
resulting from action taken by the institutions of the Com-             — Moreover, whilst, on the one hand, the amount of the
munity.                                                                      charge appears to be determined on a flat-rate basis
                                                                             according to criteria of reasonableness in the light of its
                                                                             low level (between ITL 750 000 and ITL 90 000 according
It is not disputed by the Hellenic Republic that it must adopt               to the type of operation), on the other hand, considering
measures to comply with the abovementioned directives by                     that registry fees are also payable and given the basis for
drawing up the required waste management plans.                              its payment, it is certainly determined with reference to
                                                                             the cost not of a single registration (of which there may be
                                                                             none) but of keeping the register of companies in general.
The Commission records that until now the Hellenic Republic
has not adopted the appropriate measures for full implemen-
tation of the directives at issue in Greek law, nor has it notified     (1) OJ, English Special Edition, 1969, (II), p. 412.
such measures to the Commission.                                        (2) [1993] ECR I-1915.
                                                                        Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Fourth Chamber
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale di                of the Consiglio di Stato, sitting in its judicial capacity, by
Trento (District Court of Trento) — Insolvency Section                  order of that court of 12 November 1999 in the case of
— by order of that court of 8 February 2000 in the case                 ANAS — Ente Nazionale per le Strade and Lauro Cantieri
       of Ministry of Finance v Merkur Chemical s.r.l.                   Valsesia SpA against Consorzio Cooperative Costruzioni
                        (Case C-134/00)                                                           (Case C-135/00)
                        (2000/C 176/15)                                                           (2000/C 176/16)
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                  Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
European Communities by an order of the Tribunale di                    European Communities by order of the Fourth Chamber of
Trento (District Court of Trento) — Insolvency Section — of             the Consiglio di Stato, sitting in its judicial capacity, of
8 February 2000, which was received at the Court Registry on            12 November 1999, received at the Court Registry on 10 April
10 April 2000, for a preliminary ruling in the case of Ministry         2000, for a preliminary ruling in the case of ANAS — Ente
of Finance v Merkur Chemical s.r.l. on the following question:          Nazionale per le Strade and Lauro Cantieri Valsesia SpA against
                                                                        Consorzio Cooperative Costruzioni on the following questions:
In an action brought by a capital company before the Italian            (1) In calls for tenders for public works contracts, do clauses
courts for reimbursement of the annual administrative charge                 excluding undertakings which have not submitted with
paid from 1985 to 1992 pursuant to laws incompatible with                    their tenders explanations concerning components of the
Article 10 of Council Directive 69/335/EEC (1) (Joined Cases                 price indicated, amounting to at least 75 % of the figure
C-71/91 and C-178/91 Ponente Carni v Ministry of Finance                     specified in the tender conditions, represent an obstacle to
and Cispadana Costruzioni v Ministry of Finance) (2), is the                 the application of Article 30(4) of Directive 93/37 (1)?
provision in Article 11(1) of Law No 448 of 23.12.1998
introducing the flat-rate charge retrospectively (in amounts            (2) Does the establishment of a mechanism for determining
varying between ITL 750 000 and ITL 90 000 according to                      the threshold indicative of irregularity, below which the
the type of company), for the entry in the register of companies,            validity of tenders falls to be verified, on the basis of an ad
pursuant to the Civil Code, of company instruments other                     hoc criterion and an arithmetical mean, automatically so
than the constituent instrument compatible with Article 10 of                that undertakings are unable to ascertain the threshold in
that directive and with the interpretation of it by the Court of             advance, represent an obstacle to the application of Article
Justice (Ponente Carni), given that:                                         30(4) of Directive 93/37?