EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 38/29

(Case C-583/15)

(2016/C 038/42)

Language of the case: Portuguese

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: P. Guerra Andrade and J. Hottiaux, Agents)

Defendant: Portuguese Republic

Form of order sought

—Declare that, by failing to create its national electronic register of road transport undertakings and interconnecting it with the national electronic registers of the other Member States, the Portuguese Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 16(1) and (5) of Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 (1) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator and repealing Council Directive 96/26/EC.

—order Portuguese Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1071/2009 provides that each Member State is to keep a national electronic register of road transport undertakings which have been authorised by the competent national authority to engage in the occupation of road transport operator.

Article 16(1) establishes that the data contained in the register, in particular the mandatory data referred to in Article 16(2), must be processed under the supervision of a public authority designated for that purpose. That data must be accessible to all the competent authorities of the Member State in question.

However, it is apparent from the answer given by the Portuguese State to the additional letter of formal notice that the Portuguese Administration has not yet succeeded in obtaining an agreement among the three national authorities involved in the system, namely the Autoridade Nacional de Segurança Rodoviária (National Road Safety Authority), the Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho (Employment Conditions Authority) and the Direção-Geral da Administração da Justiça (Directorate-General for the Administration of Justice).

Accordingly, not only is there no national register, as individual registers run by three national authorities continue to operate, but the data in question are not accessible to the competent authorities of the Portuguese State.

It follows that the Portuguese State has failed to comply with Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1071/2009.

Under Article 16(5) of Regulation No 1071/2009, the Member States are required to take all necessary measures to ensure that the national electronic registers are interconnected and accessible throughout the European Union.

As it does not even have a national register, there can be no doubt that the Portuguese Administration has not taken the measures necessary to interconnect its national register (which it does not have) with other national registers.

That being the case, the Portuguese State has failed to comply with Article 16(5) of Regulation No 1071/2009.

(1) OJ 2009 L 300, p. 51.