CELEX: C2007/297/47
Language: en
Date: 2007-12-08 00:00:00
Title: Case C-457/07: Action brought on 9 October 2007 — Commission of the European Communities v Portuguese Republic

8.12.2007   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 297/29
            
         Action brought on 9 October 2007 — Commission of the European Communities v Portuguese Republic
   (Case C-457/07)
   (2007/C 297/47)
   Language of the case: Portuguese
   Parties
   
      Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by S. Pardo Quintillán and P. Andrade, Agents)
   
      Defendant: Portuguese Republic
   Form of order sought
   
               —
            
            
               a declaration that the Portuguese Republic has not complied with the judgment of the Court of Justice (First Chamber) of 10 November 2005 in Case C-432/03 Commission v Portuguese Republic;
            
         
               —
            
            
               an order that the Portuguese Republic should make penalty payments of 37 400 euro a day until the Court shall have given judgment;
            
         
               —
            
            
               an order that the Portuguese Republic should pay a fine of 5 280 euro a day from 10 November 2005, the date on which the judgment declaring the infringement was delivered, until the date on which the Portuguese State shall have complied with the judgment or until the Court shall have given judgment in accordance with Article 228 EC;
            
         
               —
            
            
               an order that the Portuguese Republic should pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   The Commission argues that the Portuguese Republic continues to restrict access to the market by requiring prior approval attesting to their fitness for a given use of new construction materials for which there exist no technical specifications or mutual recognition. The Portuguese Republic also continues to restrict access to the market by refusing to recognise the equivalence of certificates issued by other Member States, for new materials for which there exist no technical specifications, if recognition has been sought by economic operators other than the manufacturers of the products or their agents.
   The Portuguese legislation still does not state what criteria are to be applied by the authorities in assessing applications for approval so that that assessment is not made arbitrarily. Where there are no technical specifications, the Portuguese law lays down criteria to be applied in recognition decisions that are not objective but are discriminatory.
   The Portuguese Republic still has not adopted the measures that it ought to have adopted in relation to the economic traders to whom the law contrary to Articles 28 and 30 of the EC Treaty was applied.