CELEX: C1999/136/12
Language: en
Date: 1999-05-15 00:00:00
Title: Case C-67/99: Action brought on 25 February 1999 by the Commission of the European Communities against Ireland

C 136/8                EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                     15.5.1999
3. If Question 1 is answered in the negative or Question 2 in          Pleas in law and main arguments
    the affirmative:
    Is Article 203(1) of the Customs Code to be construed as           Article 4(1) of the Directive imposes two obligations. Firstly,
    meaning that there is a removal from customs supervision           Member States must propose a list of sites designated as special
    where the non-Community goods declared for release into            areas of conservation and, secondly, they must transmit this
    free circulation are removed from the prescribed place of          list to the Commission, together with the relevant information
    storage/examination and consequently from the local area           on these sites.
    for which the customs office in question is responsible,
    even though the customs office had ordered a customs               The Commission submits that Ireland has proposed no site in
    examination?                                                       respect of 26 of the habitat types of Annex I of the Directive
                                                                       and 20 of Annex II in Ireland. In particular, Ireland has
4. If Question 3 is answered in the negative:                          proposed no sites for certain priority habitat types and species
    Is Article 204(1) of the Customs Code to be construed as           which have a significant presence on Ireland’s territory.
    meaning that the unauthorised removal of the goods from
    their place of storage has had ‘no significant effect’ on the      The Commission also draws attention to the fact that, for
    correct operation of the temporary storage if, after their         some habitat types and species, the competent Irish authority
    removal, the goods could, on request, have been presented          has communicated an intention of not proposing any site. The
    at another customs office?                                         Commission considers that such an exclusion from site
                                                                       proposal of natural habitat types and species is contrary to the
5. Can there be no question of a customs debt on importation           requirements of Article 4(1) of the Directive.
    being incurred
    (a) under Article 201(1)(a), in conjunction with Article           Secondly, the Commission concludes that, in the case of
        201(2), of the Customs Code, where the customs                 certain habitat types and species habitats, the number of sites
        declaration is simply accepted by the customs office,          definitively proposed by Ireland is manifestly insufficient in
        or                                                             the light of the criteria listed in Annex III and in view of the
                                                                       conservation objective pursued by the Directive. The natural
    (b) under Article 203(1) of the Customs Code, or                   importance of such habitats requires both that a larger number
                                                                       of sites be proposed and that the distribution of these sites be
    (c) under Article 204 of the Customs Code,
                                                                       more evenly balanced over the national territory as a whole.
        if formally unobjectionable certificates of origin corres-
        ponding to Form A were attached to the customs
        declaration accepted by the customs office and the             (1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7.
        preferential tariff rate ‘free’ applied to the goods
        covered by the declaration?
                                                                       Action brought on 26 February 1999 by the Commission
Action brought on 25 February 1999 by the Commission                   of the European Communities against the United
       of the European Communities against Ireland                                                  Kingdom
                         (Case C-67/99)
                                                                                                (Case C-69/99)
                        (1999/C 136/12)
                                                                                               (1999/C 136/13)
An action against Ireland was brought before the Court of
Justice of the European Communities on 25 February 1999 by             An action against the United Kingdom was brought before the
the Commission of the European Communities, represented                Court of Justice of the European Communities on 26 February
by Mr Richard Wainwright, Principal Legal Adviser, and Mr              1999 by the Commission of the European Communities,
Paolo Stancanelli, member of the Legal Service, acting as              represented by Mr Richard Wainwright, Principal Legal
agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office        Adviser, acting as agent, with an address for service in
of Mr Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, member of the Legal Service            Luxembourg at the office of Mr Carlos Gómez de la Cruz,
of the Commission, Centre Wagner.                                      member of the Legal Service of the Commission, Centre
                                                                       Wagner.
The Applicant claims that the Court should:
— declare that, by failing to transmit to the Commission the           The Applicant claims that the Court should:
    full list of sites mentioned in the first subparagraph of
    Article 4(1) of Council Directive 92/43/EEC (1) of 21 May          — declare that, by failing to adopt all the measures necessary
    1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild                to comply with its obligations under Article 3(1) and (2),
    fauna and flora, together with the information on each site             and under Article 5 of Council Directive 91/676/EEC (1) of
    required by the second paragraph of Article 4(1) of the                 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters
    said Directive, Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations            against pollution of nitrates from agricultural sources, the
    under the Directive;                                                    United Kingdom has failed to fulfil its obligations under
                                                                            that Directive and under the Treaty establishing the
— order Ireland to bear the costs.                                          European Community;