Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Acts of the institutions ° Drafting procedure ° Consultation of the Parliament ° Consultation anew in the event of a substantial amendment to the initial proposal

2. Transport ° Inland navigation ° Structural improvements ° Scrapping premiums ° Special contribution ° Transitional rules ° Breach of the principles of non-retroactivity, protection of legitimate expectations, proportionality and equal treatment ° None

(Council Regulation No 1101/89, Art. 8(1)(a) and (3)(a))

Summary

1. Where consultation of the European Parliament is provided for, there must be consultation anew on each occasion when the text finally adopted, viewed as a whole, departs substantially from the text on which the Parliament has already been consulted, except in cases where the amendments essentially correspond to the wishes of the Parliament itself.

2. The principles of non-retroactivity, protection of legitimate expectations, proportionality and equal treatment are not infringed by the transitional rules laid down in Article 8 of Regulation No 1101/89 on structural improvements in inland waterway transport, which, for a specified period, make the commissioning of newly constructed vessels subject to the requirement that the owner of the vessel to be brought into service must either scrap a tonnage of carrying capacity equivalent to the new vessel without receiving a scrapping premium or pay into the scrapping fund a special contribution equal to the scrapping premium, unless he proves that construction was under way when the regulation entered into force, that the work already carried out represents at least 20% of the steel weight or 50 tonnes and that delivery and commissioning of the vessel is to take place within the six months following entry into force of the regulation.

Whilst it is true that the regulation, which was not applicable until after it had entered into force, has onerous effects for certain economic agents who had already placed orders for vessels, there was no basis for any legitimate expectation on their part that new vessels ordered shortly after publication of the proposal for a regulation would be capable of being brought into service under the conditions ° which are less strict than those finally adopted ° laid down in that proposal since the Commission was entitled to amend its proposal at any time, the Council was entitled to adopt an act constituting an amendment to the proposal and they must have known that the industry was in favour of stricter transitional rules.

From the point of view of proportionality, moreover, the scheme adopted is appropriate and was properly considered necessary by the Council in order effectively to limit new investments in a sector in which there was structural overcapacity.

Finally, as regards the principle of equal treatment, the Community legislature cannot be required to adjust conditions objectively determined for the application of a scheme in order to accommodate specific decisions such as the choice of a shipyard which is not able to shorten its delivery times.