Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 30 May 2013 – European Commission v Republic of Poland
(Case C-512/10) 1
(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Transport – Directive 91/440/EEC – Development of the Community’s railways – Directive 2001/14/EC – Allocation of railway infrastructure capacity – Article 6(2) and (3) of Directive 2001/14 – Continued absence of financial balance – Articles 6(1) and 7(3) and (4) of Directive 91/440 – Absence of incentives for infrastructure managers – Articles 7(3) and 8(1) of Directive 2001/14 – Calculation of the minimum access charge)
Language of the case: Polish
Parties
Applicant: European Commission (represented by: H. Støvlbæk and K. Herrmann, Agent)
Defendant: Republic of Poland (represented by: M. Szpunar, K. Bożekowska-Zawisza and M. Laszuk, Agents)
Interveners in support of the defendant: name Czech Republic (represented by M. Smolek, T. Müller and J. Očková, Agents), Italian Republic (represented by G. Palmieri, Agent, and S. Fiorentino, avvocato dello Stato)
Re:
Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Failure to adopt, within the period prescribed, all the provisions necessary to ensure compliance with Article 6(3) of and Annex II to Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community’s railways (OJ 1991 L 237, p. 25) and with Articles 4(2), 6(1) to (3), 7(3), 8(1) and 14(2) of Directive 2001/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (OJ 2001 L 75, p. 29)
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Declares that, by failing to adopt incentives to encourage the railway infrastructure manager to reduce the costs of providing infrastructure and the level of access charges, and by permitting the inclusion, in the calculation of charges levied for the minimum access package and track access to service facilities, of costs which cannot be regarded as costs directly incurred as a result of operating the train service, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 6(2) and 7(3), respectively, of Directive 2001/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure, as amended by Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004;
Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
Orders the European Commission, the Republic of Poland, the Czech Republic and the Italian Republic to bear their own costs.
____________1 OJ C 30, 29.1.2011.