CELEX: C2001/118/32
Language: en
Date: 2001-04-21 00:00:00
Title: Case C-102/01: Action brought on 1 March 2001 by Italian Republic against Commission of the European Communities

C 118/20                EN                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                        21.4.2001
Action brought on 1 March 2001 by Italian Republic                       3.    The contested decision is also invalid on the following
    against Commission of the European Communities                             grounds:
                                                                               failure to define the relevant market; misuse of powers
                          (Case C-102/01)                                      by misrepresentation of the facts; infringement of the
                                                                               directive on postal services; infringement and erroneous
                                                                               application of Articles 82 and 86 of the Treaty; misuse of
                         (2001/C 118/32)                                       powers in that the decision is general and indeterminate.
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                (1) Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European                 of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of
Communities on 1 March 2001 by the Italian Republic,                         the internal market of Community postal services and the
represented by Umberto Leanza, acting as Agent, assisted by                  improvement of quality of service (OJ 1998 L 15, p. 14).
Ivo M. Braguglia and Francesca Quadri, avvocati dello Stato.
The applicant claims that the Court should:
—     annul the decision of the Commission of the European
      Communities of 21 December 2000, notified to the
      Italian Government on 22 December 2000;
—     order the Commission to pay the costs.
                                                                         Action brought on 2 March 2001 by the Commission of
                                                                         the European Communities against the Federal Republic
                                                                                                     of Germany
Pleas in law and main arguments
                                                                                                  (Case C-103/01)
1.    The Italian Government claims that the Commission
      committed a manifest error when choosing the proper
      legal basis for assessing whether the national rules at issue
      were compatible with Community law and that that                                           (2001/C 118/33)
      erroneous legal basis has led in the present case to a
      manifest breach of essential procedural requirements and
      ‘détournement de procédure’ (abuse of process), inasmuch           An action against the Federal Republic of Germany was
      as a proceeding pursuant to Article 86(3) of the Treaty            brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communi-
      was instituted and a decision adopted, instead of infringe-        ties on 2 March 2001 by the Commission of the European
      ment proceedings under Article 226 of the Treaty for               Communities, represented by Josef Christian Schieferer, of its
      failure to implement correctly Directive 97/76/EC (1) on           Legal Service, with an address for service in Luxembourg at
      postal services.                                                   the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service,
                                                                         Wagner Centre C 254, Kirchberg.
      By acting in that way, the Commission has also infringed
      Article 86(3) of the Treaty, which is not applicable in the
      present case, as well as Article 226 of the Treaty for             The applicant claims that the Court should:
      failure to apply the latter.
                                                                         (1) declare that, by including in the legislation applicable
      The decision does not contain the least statement of                     to individual Länder certain additional requirements
      reasons which led the Commission to follow the pro-                      concerning personal protective equipment for fire brig-
      cedure under Article 86, so that it is vitiated on the                   ades which corresponds to the requirements of Directive
      ground of inadequate statement of reasons.                               89/686/EEC (1) and bears the EC mark, the Federal
                                                                               Republic of Germany has infringed Articles 1 and 4 of
                                                                               that directive;
2.    The decision is vitiated for breach of the rights of the
      defence in that the final decision is vitiated with regard to
      the letter of formal notice.                                       (2) order the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs.