Case law

Seeking to impose a requirement for criminal penalties across the EC to assist in the application of objectives laid down by other EC law measures, a case involved inter-institutional skirmish in relation to the appropriate legal base of a measure between the Council's adoption of Framework Decision 2005/667/JHA of July 2005 designed to strengthen the criminal law framework for the enforcement of the law against ship-source pollution, which the Commission sought to have annulled. The Commission argued that the wrong legal base had been used and referred to a preamble of the decision which stated that its purpose was to supplement and thereby ensure the effectiveness of the system established by the Directive. On the one hand, the ECJ upheld the Commission's application and annulled the Decision since the Decision did encroach upon the competence which was provided for the EC by Article 80(2). There have been a number of cases wherein the issue has been brought about, such as in the case of the Commission vs Italy, Commission vs Ireland and Commission vs Hellenic Republic.