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Action brought on 13 August 2008 - Ellinikos Niognomon v Commission

(Case T-312/08)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Ellinikos Niognomon AE (Piraeus, Greece) (represented by: S. Pappas)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

Declare the contested decision null and void;

Condemn the defendant to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

By way of its application pursuant to Article 230 EC, the applicant seeks the annulment of the Commission's decision of 24 July 2008, by which it decided not to extend the applicant's limited recognition which it was granted under Directive 94/57/EC¹ by Commission Decision 2001/890/EC² and which was further extended by Commission Decision 2005/623/EC³ of 3 August 2005.

The applicant, first, claims that the contested decision infringes an essential procedural requirement by not having followed the comitology procedure provided for in Articles 4 and 9 of Directive 94/57/EC.

Second, the applicant submits that the refusal to grant extension of the limited recognition is based on assessments carried out exclusively by the Commission and not jointly with the respective Member States according to Articles 4, 9 and 11 of Directive 94/57/EC.

Third, the applicant argues that the contested decision does not respect the applicant's rights of defence and is contrary to its legal expectations.

Fourth, the applicant contends that the contested decision infringes the Directive by misinterpreting it in so far as the applicable criteria are concerned (safety and prevention performance records), by omitting the gradual steps that the Commission should have undertaken before reaching a negative decision and by not having taken into account the inspections and reports produced by the Member States concerned, thus adopting unlawful reasoning.

Finally, the applicant claims that the contested decision infringes the principles of proportionality as well as the principle of good administration.

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¹ - Council Directive 94/57/EC of 22 November 1994 on common rules and standards for ship inspection and survey organizations and for the relevant activities of maritime administrations (OJ 1994 L 319, p. 20)

² - Commission Decision of 13 December 2001 on the recognition of the "Hellenic Register of Shipping" in accordance with Article 4(3) of Council Directive 94/57/EC (notified under document number C(2001) 4218) (OJ 2001 L 329, p. 72)

³ - Commission Decision of 3 August 2005 on the extension of the limited recognition of the Hellenic Register of Shipping (notified under document number C(2005) 2940) (OJ 2005 L 219, p. 43)