(2004/C 65 E/106)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1828/03

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 June 2003)

Subject:   Unpaid fines and proceedings against Greece pending before the European Court of Justice

Can the Commission say in how many and which cases Greece has been fined by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) since 1994 to date? What is the total amount of the fines imposed on Greece? Which of these fines have not yet been paid by Greece? In how many and which cases are proceedings against Greece pending before the ECJ and what is the schedule for these proceedings?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(16 July 2003)

The Court of Justice has found against Greece under Article 228 of the EC Treaty only once — in Case C-387/97, which involved the unsupervised disposal of waste in the Chania region (Crete) and the lack of management plans for the disposal of waste and dangerous waste. By judgment of 4 July 2000, Greece was ordered to pay a penalty of EUR 20 000 for each day's delay in implementing the requisite measures for complying with the Court's decision in Case C-45/91 Commission v Greece (delivered pursuant to Article 226 of the EC Treaty). Thus, it had to pay EUR 20 000 a day from 4 July 2000 until 26 February 2001, when it effectively complied with the judgment; this resulted in a total of EUR 5 400 000, which was paid by the Greek authorities on time.

The Commission filed another suit against Greece in the Court of Justice under Article 228 of the EC Treaty for failure to comply with the Court's judgment of 23 March 1995 (1). The application was lodged on 27 May 1998 under case number C-197/98. As the directive in question was transposed by presidential decree of 23 June 2000, the Commission withdrew its suit on 3 August and the case was removed from the register.

The Commission had decided to apply to the Court under Article 228 in three other matters but, since Greece complied with the Court's judgments, the files were closed before the applications were lodged.

The grounds for the applications — failure to comply with the appropriate judgments — were the same in each case:

There are therefore no other proceedings pending at this time against Greece under Article 228 of the EC Treaty.

As regards proceedings under Article 226, there are at present 22 applications pending. In six of these, the Commission has withdrawn its suit and removal from the register is awaited. A summary table of the remaining 16 applications, giving the case number, a brief title and the stage reached in the proceedings is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and Parliament's Secretariat.

(1)  Case C-365/93, which concerned the failure to notify national measures implementing Directive 89/48/EEC on a general system for the recognition of higher-education diplomas.