CELEX: C2000/149/23
Language: en
Date: 2000-05-27 00:00:00
Title: Case C-29/00: Action brought on 1 February 2000 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Federal Republic of Germany

C 149/14               EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                     27.5.2000
— Infringement of Article 109(1) of the OCT Decision, so far                  7 June1990 on the freedom of access to information on
     as mixtures of cocoa and sugar (CN codes 1806 10 30                      the environment (1), and in particular Article 3(1) and (4)
     and 1806 10 90) are concerned: here too, the amounts in                  thereof, for failing to ensure that, within a period of two
     question are very small; if one extrapolates from the                    months after the request, the authorities of the Land
     Eurostat figures, one arrives at the figure of 15 278 tonnes             Schleswig-Holstein either provided the information
     for the whole of 1999. The suggestion that these mixtures                requested or refused the request.
     are ‘[imported] ... at prices below those at which Com-
     munity producers can sell comparable products’ is not               (2) order the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs.
     supported by any evidence. The fact that the Commission
     also misused its powers with regard to the mixtures of
     cocoa and sugar is in particular also evident from the
     nature of the measure laid down in Article 2 of the                 Pleas in law and main arguments
     regulation. While it may be a relatively innocuous measure
     (provided that it is not employed by customs authorities            The Commission submits that the practice referred to in the
     for the purpose of carrying out obstructive checks), a              application does not comply with the requirements of Article
     customs surveillance mechanism such as that referred to             3 of Directive 90/313/EEC, because the word ‘respond’ in the
     in Article 2 has as its purpose to collect information in           first sentence of Article 3(4) must be interpreted as including,
     order to determine whether the imports in question may              on the one hand, the provision of the information requested
     disrupt the market. The Commission’s reasoning is based             or permission to inspect the information, and, on the other
     on false premises.                                                  hand, the refusal of a request. The time element is of crucial
                                                                         significance for the efficiency of the whole system under the
— Infringement of Article 253 EC: the reasons set out in                 directive. If an authority were merely required to give an
     recitals (1) through (5) are inadequate, internally inconsist-      interim answer within the two-month period, stating that
     ent and incomprehensible.                                           access to the information can be granted at a later date, the
                                                                         system would not be effective. The Commission maintains that
— Infringement of Article 109(2) of the OCT Decision and                 only its interpretation of Article 3(4) of the directive accords
     the principle of proportionality: should it none the less be        with the aim of the directive and the effectiveness of the
     necessary to fix a threshold price for imports of OCT               opportunities for the persons concerned to obtain legal
     sugar, it would have been much more logical to proceed              protection, which the directive seeks.
     on the basis of a minimum selling price than on that of a
     minimum cif import price.
                                                                         (1) OJ L 158, 23.6.1990, p. 56.
(1) OJ 1999 L 294, p. 11.
                                                                         Action brought on 10 February 2000 by the Kingdom of
Action brought on 1 February 2000 by the Commission                      Spain against the Commission of the European Communi-
of the European Communities against the Federal Repub-                                                   ties
                          lic of Germany
                                                                                                   (Case C-36/00)
                          (Case C-29/00)
                                                                                                  (2000/C 149/24)
                         (2000/C 149/23)
                                                                         An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
An action against the Federal Republic of Germany was                    ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European
brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communi-             Communities on 10 February 2000 by the Kingdom of Spain,
ties on 1 February 2000 by the Commission of the European                represented by Mr Santiago Ortiz Vaamonde, acting as Agent,
Communities, represented by Götz zur Hausen, Legal Adviser,              with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Spanish
with an address for service at the office of Carlos Gómez de la         Embassy, 4-6 Boulevard E. Servais.
Cruz, a Member of the Legal Service of the European Com-
mission, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.
                                                                         The applicant claims that the Court should:
The Commission claims that the Court should:                             1. Declare void the decision of the Commission of 26 October
                                                                              1999 declaring certain aid granted to publicly owned
(1) declare the Federal Republic of Germany in breach of                      Spanish shipyards incompatible with the common market
     its obligations under Council Directive 90/313/EEC of                    and ordering its recovery,