25.1.2014

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 24/7

(Case C-576/13)

2014/C 24/12

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: L. Nicolae and S. Pardo Quintillán, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of Spain

Form of order sought

—Declare, pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, that, by requiring, as a general rule, cargo handling undertakings operating in Spanish ports of general interest to participate in a SAGEP (Sociedad Anónima de Gestión de Estibadores Portuarios, a public limited company for the management of port cargo handlers) and in any event by not permitting them to have recourse to the market, for the purposes of recruiting their own personnel, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, unless the workers put forward by the SAGEP are unsuitable or insufficient, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 49 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

—Order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The action brought by the European Commission against the Kingdom of Spain concerns the body of rules established by the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy in relation to cargo handling undertakings, with regard to the management of the workers involved in port cargo handling services.

The Commission takes the view that those rules — by requiring, as a general rule, cargo handling undertakings operating in Spanish ports of general interest to participate in a SAGEP and in any event by not permitting them to have recourse to the market, for the purposes of recruiting their own personnel, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, unless the workers put forward by the SAGEP are unsuitable or insufficient — are contrary to the Kingdom of Spain’s obligations under Article 49 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union on freedom of establishment.