Procedimento penal entablado contra Matteo Peralta.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61992CJ0379
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1994:296
• Date: 14 July 1994
• Docket Number: C-379/92
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling

Judgment of the Court of 14 July 1994. - Criminal proceedings against Matteo Peralta. - Reference for a preliminary ruling: Pretura circondariale di Ravenna - Italy. - Articles 3 (f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r of the EEC Treaty. - Case C-379/92.

European Court reports 1994 Page I-03453
Swedish special edition Page I-00015
Finnish special edition Page I-00015

Summary Parties Grounds Decision on costs Operative part

Keywords

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1. Preliminary rulings ° Jurisdiction of the Court ° Limits ° International agreement not binding on the Community ° Excluded

2. Freedom to provide services ° Community rules ° Whether a trader from a Member State may rely on them against that State by reason of his activity of providing services to another Member State

(EEC Treaty, Art. 59; Council Regulation No 4055/86, Art. 1(1))

3. Freedom to provide services ° Principle of non-discrimination ° Scope ° Restrictions ° Concept ° Disadvantages ensuing for a provider of services from being subjected to particularly constraining requirements in force in his place of establishment ° Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 59; Council Regulation No 4055/86, Art. 9)

4. Transport ° Maritime transport ° Free movement of goods ° Workers ° Freedom of establishment ° Freedom to provide services ° Environment ° National legislation prohibiting in State waters all vessels and on the high seas only vessels flying the national flag from discharging harmful chemical substances and penalizing infringements by masters of vessels who are nationals of the enacting State by suspending their professional qualification ° Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Arts 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r; Council Regulation No 4055/86)

Summary

1. The Court may not rule on the question whether legislation of a Member State is compatible with an international agreement, such as the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, called "the Marpol Convention", if the Community is not party to that agreement and it does not appear that the Community has assumed, under the Treaty, the powers previously exercised by the Member States in the field to which the agreement applies or that its provisions have the effect of binding the Community.

2. Since Article 59 of the Treaty must apply in all cases in which a provider of services offers services on the territory of a Member State other than that in which he is established and Article 1(1) of Regulation No 4055/86 lays down that freedom to provide maritime transport services between Member States and between Member States and third countries is to apply in respect of nationals of Member States who are established in a Member State other than that of the person for whom the services are intended, a maritime carrier who carries goods to other Member States may rely, as against the Member State in which he is established and whose flag his vessels fly, on an infringement of the freedom to provide maritime transport services recognized by Community law.

However, as regards the complaints he may assert against it, his situation is different from that of a carrier established in another Member State who, when providing services, must therefore satisfy simultaneously the requirements imposed by two Member States, that whose flag his vessels fly and that in which he intends temporarily to exercise his activity.

3. Since the difference in treatment applied by a body of national legislation between national maritime carriers and those from other Member States is due to the fact that the jurisdiction which may be exercised over the first, by virtue of the law of the flag, is not the same as that which may be exercised over the second, which is limited to that which may be exercised by a State in the waters over which it has jurisdiction, no discrimination prohibited by Article 9 of Regulation No 4055/86, applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport between Member States and between Member States and third countries, exists. At all events, the application of a body of national legislation cannot be regarded as contrary to the principle of non-discrimination solely because other Member States apply less strict provisions.

Moreover, where national legislation does not make a distinction between vessels according to whether they carry goods internally or to other Member States, does not make any distinction regarding services for exported products and for products marketed nationally and does not afford any particular advantages to the domestic market, to national transport operations or to national products, that legislation cannot be regarded as restricting freedom to provide services to other Member States, which is prohibited by the aforesaid regulation.

The indirect advantages which carriers from other Member States may derive from the fact that they are subject to less strict requirements are merely the consequence of the absence of harmonization of national laws to which the various providers of services in the various Member States in which they are established are subject.

4. Articles 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r of the Treaty and Regulation No 4055/86, applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport between Member States and between Member States and third countries, do not preclude the legislation of a Member State from prohibiting all vessels, regardless of the flag which they fly, from discharging harmful chemical substances into its territorial waters and its internal waters, or from imposing the same prohibition on the high seas only on vessels flying the national flag, or, finally, in the event of infringement, from penalizing masters of vessels who are nationals of that State by suspending their professional qualification.

Parties

In Case C-379/92,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the Pretura Circondariale di Ravenna for a preliminary ruling in the criminal proceedings before that court against

Matteo Peralta,

on the interpretation of Articles 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r of the EEC Treaty,

THE COURT,

composed of: G.F. Mancini, President of Chamber, acting as President, R. Joliet, F.A. Schockweiler, G.C. Rodríquez Iglesias, F. Grévisse (Rapporteur), M. Zuleeg and J.L. Murray, Judges,

Advocate General: C.O. Lenz,

Registrar: R. Grass,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

° Matteo Peralta, by Giuseppe Conte and Giuseppe Michele Giacomini, of the Genoa Bar,

° the Italian Government, by Professor Luigi Ferrari Bravo, Head of the Department for Contentious Diplomatic Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent, assisted by Oscar Fiumara, Avvocato dello Stato,

° the Commission of the European Communities, by Vittorio Di Bucci, of its Legal Service, acting as Agent,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing the oral observations of Matteo Peralta, the Italian Government and the Commission of the European Communities at the hearing on 9 February 1994,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 11 May 1994

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By order of 24 September 1992, received at the Court on 19 October 1992, the Pretora Circondariale di Ravenna (District Magistrate' s Court, Ravenna) referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 177 of the EEC Treaty six questions on the interpretation of Articles 3(f), 7, 30, 48, 52, 59, 62, 84 and 130r of the EEC Treaty.

2 Those questions were raised in criminal proceedings brought against Matteo Peralta by the Italian authorities for breach of Law No 979 of 31 December 1982 laying down provisions for the protection of the sea (GURI No 16, of 18 January 1983, Ordinary Supplement, p. 5).

3 Article 16 of Law No 979 provides:

"In territorial waters and internal maritime waters, including ports, it shall be prohibited for any vessel, regardless of nationality, to discharge into the sea or to cause to be discharged into the sea hydrocarbons or hydrocarbon mixtures or any other substances harmful to the marine environment mentioned in List A annexed to this Law.

Vessels flying the Italian flag shall also be prohibited from discharging the substances referred to in the foregoing paragraph even outside territorial waters."

4 Infringements of those provisions are penalized, under Article 20 of the same Law, by fines of LIT 500 000 to 10 million and terms of imprisonment of up to two years. Professional sanctions may also be imposed. Masters of vessels who are Italian nationals may be suspended for a period of up to two years. Masters who are not Italian nationals may be prohibited from mooring at Italian ports for a period...