CELEX: C2005/205/08
Language: en
Date: 2005-08-20 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 2 June 2005 in Case C-174/04: Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Article 56 EC — Automatic suspension of voting rights in privatised undertakings)

20.8.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 205/4
            
         
      JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
   
   (First Chamber)
   of 2 June 2005
   in Case C-174/04: Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic (1)
   
   (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Article 56 EC - Automatic suspension of voting rights in privatised undertakings)
   (2005/C 205/08)
   Language of the case: Italian
   In Case C-174/04, Commission of the European Communities (Agents: E. Traversa and C. Loggi) v Italian Republic (Agent: I.M. Braguglia, assisted by P. Gentili, avvocato) — action under Article 226 EC for failure to fulfil obligations, brought on 13 April 2004 — the Court (First Chamber), composed of P. Jann (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, K. Lenaerts, N. Colneric, K. Schiemann and E. Juhász, Judges; J. Kokott, Advocate General; R. Grass, Registrar, gave a judgment on 2 June 2005 in which it:
   
               1.
            
            
               Declares that, by maintaining in force Decree-Law (decreto-legge) No 192 of 25 May 2001, converted into Law No 301, entitled ‘Urgent provisions to ensure the liberalisation and privatisation of specific public service sectors’ (legge no 301, recante disposizioni urgenti per salvaguardare i processi di liberalizzazione e privatizzazione di specifici settori dei servizi publici), of 20 July 2001, which provides for the automatic suspension of voting rights attaching to holdings in excess of 2 % of the capital of undertakings operating in the electricity and gas sectors, where those holdings are acquired by public undertakings not quoted on regulated financial markets and enjoying a dominant position in their own domestic markets, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 56 EC;
            
         
               2.
            
            
               Orders the Italian Republic to pay the costs.
            
         
      (1)  OJ C 156 of 12.06.2004.