Action brought on 11 July 2012 - Holcim (Romania) v European Commission

(Case T-317/12)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Holcim (Romania) SA (Bucharest, Romania) (represented by: L. Arnauts, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

Order the defendant to pay the applicant the market value of the allegedly stolen European Emission Allowances that would not be recovered by the day of the judgment, at their market price, plus interest rate of 8% per annum as from 16 November 2010;

Order the defendant to pay the costs of he proceedings; and

Declare the judgment enforceable.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on one main plea in law, alleging:

the European Union's liability for unlawful decisions of the European Commission consisting in:

(a)    misinterpretation of Article 10(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2216/2004 of 21 December 2004 for a standardised and secured system of registries pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Decision No 280/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 386, p. 1);

(b)     a breach of Article 20 of 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 L 275, p. 32);

(c)     breaches of several general principles of law (principles of proportionality and of protection of legitimate expectations, duty of care, right to an effective judicial protection in respect of property rights), when deciding not to disclose or allow disclosure of the location of stolen European Emission Allowances in the framework of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

____________