Opinion of Mr Advocate General Darmon delivered on 2 July 1991
1 Original language: French.
2 Case 13/83 Parliament v Council [1985] ECR 1513, Opinion of Advócale General Lenz.
3 The Commission, for its part, referred to international transport in its observations, stating that, by adopting Regulation (EEC) No 1841/88 of 21 June 1988, the Council had remedied its failure to act. should be recalled that that regulation provides for the abolition of Community quotas, bilateral quotas and quotas for transit traffic to and from nonmember countries on 1 January 1993, and that from that date access to the market for transfrontier carriage of goods will be governed by a system of Community licences issued on the basis of qualitative criteria.
4 Cited above, see footnote 1.
5 Paragraph 64.
6 Judgment in Case 279/80 Webb [1981] ECR 3305.
7 Cited above, footnote 4.
8 Paragraph 65.
9 Paragraph 67.
10 Paragraph 62.
11 See reference io the Report for the Hearing (ECR 1582).
12 Judgment in Case 4/88 Lambregts Transportbedrijf v Belgian Slate [1989] ECR 2583, Opinion of Advocate General Jacobs.
13 Paragraph 20.
14 Paragraph 21.
15 OJ 1989 L 390, p. 3; the European Parliament brought an action, which is stili pending, for the annulment of that regulation (OJ 1990 C 110, p. 5) judgment of 16th July 1992 (Case C-65/90, [1992] ECR I-4593).
16 The plaintiff in lhe main proceedings had referred to 1 July 1987 in its written observations.
17 Judgment in Case 131/84 Commission v Italy [1985] ECR 3531, paragraph 7; see also the judgment in Cast 160/85 Commission v Italy [1986] ECR 3245; the judgment in Joined Cases 227/85 to 230/85 Commission v Belgium [1988] ECR 1; the judgment of 12 February 1987 in Case 69/86 Commission v Italy [1987] ECR 773; the judgment in Case 225/86 Commission v Italy [1988] ECR 2271; the judgment in Case 169/87 Commission v France [1988] ECR 4093; the judgment in Case 375/89 Commission v Belgium [1991] ECR I-383.
18 Paragraph 69, my emphasis.
19 OJ 1985 C 349, p. 26.
20 OJ 1986 C 255, p. 234.
21 Ibid., p. 227.
22 Opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the conditions under which nonresident carriers may operate national road haulage services within a Member State (OJ 1987 C 180, p. 37).
23 OJ 1987 C 180, p. 38.
24 Ibid.
25 La Politique Commune des Transports de la CEE dans la Perspective du Marché Unique de 1992, Prométhée, p. 7.
26 Ibid.
27 Resolution of the European Parliament, cited above (p. 228).
28 It should be recalled that the Court considered that the Council was obliged to ensure freedom to provide services. The Court did not, however, make a finding of failure to act with respect to other aspects of the common transport policy, considering that the nature of the failure to act on that point was not sufficiently well-defined to be the subject of an action under Article 175; the Economic and Social Committee comments on that judgment as follows: the European Court of Justice stated that the introduction of the freedom to provide transport services could not legally be made subject to the prior harmonization of conditions of competition (Opinion on the proposal for the Council Regulation laying down the conditions under which nonresident carriers may operate national road haulage services within a Member State (OJ 1987 C 180, p. 37)).
29 In that respect it must first of all be observed that objective difficulties which, according to the Council, stand in the way of the necessary progress towards a common transport policy are irrelevant for the purposes of the present action. Under Article 175 the Court must find that there has been an infringement of the Treaty if the Council or the Commission fails to act when under an obligation to do so. Article 175 takes no account of how difficult it may be for the institution in question to comply with the obligation, paragraph 48 of the judgment in Parliaments Council.
30 Paragraph 62.
31 Paragraph 65.
32 Paragraph 20 of the Opinion, my emphasis.
33 Case 63/83 Reginai Kirk [1984] ECR 2689.
34 Judgment in Lambregts, paragraph 13.