Action brought on 26 September 2007 - Republic of Latvia v Commission of the European Communities

(Case T-369/07)

Language of the case: Latvian

Parties

Applicant: Republic of Latvia (represented by: E. Balode-Buraka, K. Bārdiņa)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

Annul Commission Decision C(2007) 3409, of 13 July 2007, on the amendment of the national plan for the allocation of greenhouse gas emission allowances notified by Latvia under Article 3(3) of Commission Decision C/2006/5612 (final), of 29 November 2006, on the national plan for the allocation of greenhouse gas emission allowances notified by Latvia under European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87/EC. ¹

Order the Commission to pay the costs.

Adjudicate under an expedited procedure.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant submits that, by interpreting very widely the rights conferred by Article 9(3) of Commission Directive 2003/87/EC, the Commission has significantly restricted the sovereign rights of the Republic of Latvia in relation to energy, in particular, as regards its choice of energy sources and as regards the supply of electrical energy, thus disregarding the powers set out in Article 175(2)(c) of the EC Treaty.

Similarly, the applicant submits that the Commission has infringed the principle of non-discrimination, in that the application of the method of calculation devised by it to determine the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions allowed disadvantages the Member States with low total emissions.

The applicant also submits that the first criterion of Annex III of Directive 2003/87 has been infringed in that the Commission, when adopting the decision, did not take account of the international obligations of the Republic of Latvia under the Kyoto Agreement.

Finally, it submits that the Decision was adopted in breach of essential procedural requirements in that the time limit for rejection of the plan set by Article 9(3) of Directive 2003/87 was not respected.

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¹ - Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (OJ 2003 L 275, p. 32).