Action brought on 9 June 2008 — Commission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic

(Case C-248/08)

(2008/C 209/44)

Language of the case: Greek

Parties

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by: E. Tserepa-Lacombe and A. Markoulli)

Defendant: Hellenic Republic

Form of order sought

The Court is asked to:

Pleas in law and main arguments

By this action the Commission asks the Court to find that the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4(2)(a) and (c), Article 5(2)(c), Article 6(2)(b) and Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 and 26 of Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption (‘the animal by-products regulation’). It should be noted that this action concerns two sets of infringement proceedings (Infringements 2001/5217 and 2006/2221) which arose from breach of the Hellenic Republic's obligations under specific articles of that regulation.

In particular the regulation states that once animal waste is collected, transported and identified without undue delay, it must, inter alia, be disposed of as waste, having been processed in the ways provided for in the Regulation in accordance with the category to which the waste belongs (Articles 4(2)(c), 5(2)(c) and 6(2)(b)). Procedures are also laid down for the disposal of specified risk material by incineration (Article 4(2)(a)). Further, the animal by-products regulation lays down the conditions governing the approval of waste processing plants, intermediate, storage, incineration and co-incineration plants, Category 1 and Category 2 processing plants, Category 2 and Category 3 oleochemical plants, biogas plants and composting plants (Articles 10-15). Similarly, the animal by-products regulation lays down the conditions governing the approval by the competent authorities of Category 3 material processing plants and the approval of petfood plants and technical plants (Articles 17-18). In addition, in accordance with the regulation, the competent authority must carry out at regular intervals inspections and supervision to ascertain that the regulation's provisions are being observed, on the basis of various criteria which are laid down, and to take the appropriate action in the case of non-compliance (Article 26).

On the basis of a large number of reports drawn up by the Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), the Commission points out that neither at the end of the time-limits laid down in the reasoned opinion and in the supplementary reasoned opinion nor after those dates had the Hellenic Republic taken all the requisite measures to correct the infringements with which it was charged and consequently to comply with its obligations under the above-mentioned articles of the by-products regulation.

Since 2004 the FVO has carried out a number of fact-finding trips in Greece to ascertain what defects there are in the application of the by-products regulation. Despite ascertaining that there had been some progress following the advice of the FVO and the adoption of specific legislation in October 2006 which aimed to introduce the requisite administrative measures to apply the provisions of the by-products regulation, in particular as regards the approval of waste processing plants, the FVO inspectors repeatedly found, on-the-spot and until April 2007, when the last fact-finding trip took place, that the Greek authorities had not taken the requisite action to comply with the obligations incumbent on them under the above-mentioned articles of the by-products regulation.

It should also be pointed out that the non-implementation, or inadequate implementation, of the above-mentioned articles is due, to a large extent, to the ineffective coordination of the competent authorities at the level of the prefectural administration. Furthermore, as is clear from the response of the Greek authorities to the findings set out in the FVO's reports, the level of the controls carried out by the competent authorities and of the penalties imposed by the national legislation do not effectively ensure the effective application of the by-products regulation.

(1)  OJ L 273 of 10.10.2002, p. 1.