EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 285/17

(Case C-342/08)

(2008/C 285/29)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by: G. Rozet and A. Sipos, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of Belgium

Form of order sought

—declare that, by failing to ensure the elaboration of an external emergency plan for all the establishments covered by Article 9 of Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, amended by Directive 2003/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2003, the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 11(1)(c) of that directive;

—order Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Commission submits that the elaboration of external emergency plans for measures to be taken outside the establishments covered by Article 9 of Directive 96/82/EC is a fundamental requirement of that directive. The Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under the directive in so far as it has not drawn up such plans for 59 establishments situated on its territory while, according to the wording of the directive, those plans should have been drawn up at the latest 3 years after the time-limit for transposing the directive had elapsed, that is on 3 February 2002.

(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ 1997 L 10, p. 13.

(<span class="super">2</span>) Directive 2003/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2003 amending Council Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (OJ 1997 L 345, p. 97).