Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 17 July 2008.#Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Belgium.#Failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations - Directive 68/414/EEC - Article 1(1) - Obligation to maintain minimum stocks of petroleum products - Breach.#Case C-510/07.

Subject of the case

Re:

Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Failure to comply with the obligation to stock petroleum products under Article 1(1) of Council Directive 68/414/EEC of 20 December 1968 imposing an obligation on Member States of the EEC to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products (OJ English Special Edition 1968 (II), p. 586), as amended and then codified by Council Directive 2006/67/EC of 24 July 2006 (OJ 2006 L 217, p. 8) – Nature and extent of the obligation to stock – Discrepancy between the figures transmitted by the Member State concerned and the data provided by Eurostat – Method of calculating stocks of petroleum products and the level of internal consumption of those products.

Operative part

Operative part

The Court:

1. Declares that, by failing to adopt all such laws, regulations or administrative provisions as may be appropriate to maintain within the Community at all times the level of stocks of petroleum products in the second category of petroleum products listed in Article 2 of Council Directive 68/414/EEC of 20 December 1968 imposing an obligation on Member States of the EEC to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products, as amended by Council Directive 98/93/EC of 14 December 1998, the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 1(1) of that directive;

2. Orders the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.