Luxembourg, 19/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has handed down judgements against France, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg for infringements of European law in the following cases.
Protection of privacy. Because of its failure to apply the 1997 European directive on the treatment of personal data and wire tapping, France was condemned by the Fourth Chamber, with Antonio La Pergola presiding. Paris had until 24 October 1998 to transpose the entire directive, which concerns the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector (invoicing, identification of callers, etc.) and until 24 October 2000 to protect users from wire tapping (listening to and storage and interception of calls). France has announced that it will soon be in conformity, since transposition of the directive necessitated a review of the Post and Telecommunications law.
Malpensa Airport. Rome lost the case in which it had requested annulment of the 1998 Commission decision banning Italy from applying its rules for the division of air traffic between the Linate and Malpensa Airports. The ruling is purely for the record since the Italian Government has amended the decrees concerning the reorganisation of the Milan airport system and the European Commission has accepted the changes. Legal experts will nevertheless find that it has interesting elements: with this 1998 decision, contrary to what the Italian Government had maintained, the Commission did not violate any fundamental principles of European law, ruled the European Court of Justice.
Dentists in Italy. The Sixth Chamber, with Claus Gulmann presiding, clarified Italian legislation concerning the dental profession. The Court "abolished" two provisions of the Italian law preventing dentists from other Member States from having an office in Italy. Under the Italian provision, a dentist from France, Austria or any other Member State must also have a residence in Italy if he plans to open a second office. If this same dentist chooses to practice first in Italy and then to change his place of residence to another Member State, he is automatically struck from the Italian register of health care professionals. An Italian taking up residence abroad remains on the professional register, however. These two provisions run counter to the principle of freedom of establishment and non-discrimination between Community nationals, ruled the Court.
Toll roads. Spain is not allowed to maintain a reduced VAT rate on motorways (see yesterday's EUROPE).
Telecommunications. The Fifth Chamber handed down a judgement against Luxembourg, which is not entirely in conformity with European law because it has not correctly transposed the 1997 directive on the grant of general authorisations and individual licences to telecommunications undertakings. The Court also criticised Luxembourg's implementing texts for the directive, which do not guarantee early decision making by the relevant authorities for the issue of individual licences.
The above decisions were handed down in direct proceedings, i.e. those initiated by the European Commission against Member States. In an upcoming issue, EUROPE will be reporting on preliminary rulings, or questions sent to the Court by national courts with a view to the application of European law.