Action brought on 27 June 2007 - CityLine Hungary Kft. v Commission of the European Communities
(Case T-237/07)
Language of the case: Hungarian
Parties
Applicant(s): CityLine Hungary Kft. (Vecsés, Hungary) (represented by: Á. Menyhei, lawyer)
Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities
Form of order sought
Declare Article 2c(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 375/2007 of 30 March 2007 published in the Official Journal of the European Union of 4 April 2007 invalid, and
Order the defendant to pay the costs, including legal fees.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The applicant contests the validity of Article 2c(1) of Regulation EC No 1702/2003 introduced by Regulation (EC) No 375/2007.
1 The Article deals with the continued operation of certain aircrafts registered by Member States.
The applicant, which is engaged in the transport of various goods by air, claims that the contested provisions of Regulation (EC) No 375/2007 are of direct and individual concern to it.
By way of grounds the applicant submits that Article 2c of Regulation (EC) No 375/2007 infringes the general principle of legal certainty. The contested Regulation makes the operation of aircraft subject to a past event, that is to say, it requires registration to have been effected before the accession of the Member State in question to the European Union, a circumstance which in the present case was obviously not foreseeable by the relevant persons.
The applicant submits further that the contested Article of Regulation (EC) No 375/2007 infringes the principle of proportionality enshrined in Article 5 EC. In that connection the applicant argues that the contested provision constitutes a disproportionate restriction for persons whose aircraft were placed on a Member State's register after accession. The Article is irrelevant in terms of flight safety and entails unnecessary rules and conditions thereby going further than is necessary to achieve the objectives contained in the EC Treaty.
____________1 - Commission Regulation (EC) No 375/2007 of 30 March 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 1702/2003 laying down implementing rules for the airworthiness and environmental certification of aircraft and related products, parts and appliances, as well as for the certification of design and production organisations (OJ 2007 L 94, p. 3).