19.9.2022

Official Journal of the European Union

C 359/33

(Case C-395/22)

(2022/C 359/38)

Language of the case: Bulgarian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Trade Express-L OOD

Defendant: Zamestnik-predsedatel na Darzhavna agentsia ‘Darzhaven rezerv i voennovremenni zapasi’

Questions referred

1.Having regard to the objective of Council Directive 2009/119/EC (1) of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, and to Article 2(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 (2) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on energy statistics, and in the light of the principle of proportionality under Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 17 thereof, must recital 33 and Article 1, Article 3, Article 8 and Article 2(i) and (j) of that directive be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which persons who have made intra-Community receipts of lubricating oils as defined in point 3.4.20 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 (or importers of such lubricating oils) can be obliged to establish emergency stocks?

2.Having regard to the objective of Council Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, and in the light of the principle of proportionality under Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 17 thereof, must recital 33 and Article 1, Article 3, Article 8 and Article 2(i) and (j) of that directive be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which the types of products in respect of which emergency stocks must be established and maintained are limited to some of the types of products in Article 2(i) of that directive, in conjunction with Chapter 3.4 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008?

3.Having regard to the objective of Council Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, and in the light of the principle of proportionality under Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 17 thereof, must recital 33 and Article 1, Article 3, Article 8 and Article 2(i) and (j) of that directive be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which the making by a person of intra-Community receipts or imports of one of the types of products referred to in Article 2(i) of that directive, in conjunction with Chapter 3.4 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008, entails an obligation on the part of that person to establish and maintain emergency stocks of another, different type of product?

4.Having regard to the objective of Council Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, and in the light of the principle of proportionality under Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 17 thereof, must recital 33 and Article 1, Article 3, Article 8 and Article 2(i) and (j) of that directive be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which a person is obliged to establish and maintain stocks of a product which he or she does not use in the course of his or her economic activity and which is not connected with that activity, whereby that obligation also entails a significant financial burden (leading, in practice, to the impossibility of compliance), since the person neither possesses the product nor imports it and/or holds stocks of it?

5.If any of those questions is answered in the negative: Having regard to the objective of Council Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, and in the light of the principle of proportionality under Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 17 thereof, must recital 33 and Article 1, Article 3, Article 8 and Article 2(i) and (j) of that directive be interpreted as meaning that a person who has made intra-Community receipts or imports of a particular type of product can only be obliged to establish and maintain emergency stocks of the same type of product which was the subject of the intra-Community receipts/imports?

(1) OJ 2009 L 265, p. 9.

(2) OJ 2008 L 304, p. 1.