CELEX: C2005/155/18
Language: en
Date: 2005-06-25 00:00:00
Title: Case C-191/05: Action brought on 28 April 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Portuguese Republic

25.6.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 155/9
            
         Action brought on 28 April 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Portuguese Republic
   (Case C-191/05)
   (2005/C 155/18)
   Language of the case: Portuguese
   An action against the Portuguese Republic was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 28 April 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by Michel van Beek and António Caeiros, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
   The Commission of the European Communities claims that the Court should:
   
               1.
            
            
               declare that, by altering the demarcation of the Moura, Mourão e Barrancos Special Protection Area (SPA), excluding from it areas providing a habitat for species of wild birds for whose protection that SPA was designated, the Portuguese Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4(1) of Council Directive 79/409/EEC (1) of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds;
            
         
               2.
            
            
               order the Portuguese Republic to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   
               1.
            
            
               The Moura, Mourão e Barrancos Special Protection Area (SPA) was established by the Portuguese Government on 23 September 1999 by Decree-Law No 384-B/99 of 23 September 1999. The boundaries of that SPA are laid down in Annex XXIV to that piece of legislation.
            
         
               2.
            
            
               It is clear from the information provided by the Portuguese authorities that the alteration of the demarcation of the Moura, Mourão e Barrancos SPA by Decree-Law No 141/2002 of 20 May 2002 has no scientific basis. However, it follows from the case-law of the Court of Justice that species whose protection was considered necessary can be excluded only on scientific grounds.
            
         
      (1)  OJ 1979 L 103, p. 1.