5.6.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 148/2

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 15 April 2010 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Handens Tingsrätt (Sweden)) — Criminal proceedings against Lars Sandström

(Case C-433/05) (1)

(Directives 94/25/EC and 2003/44/EC - Approximation of laws - Recreational craft - Prohibition of using personal watercraft on waters other than general navigable waterways - Articles 28 EC and 30 EC - Measures having equivalent effect - Access to the market - Impediment - Protection of the environment - Proportionality - Directive 98/34/EC - Article 8 - Amendment to national legislation - Obligation to notify - Conditions)

2010/C 148/03

Language of the case: Swedish

Referring court

Handens Tingsrätt

Party in the main proceedings

Lars Sandström

Re:

Preliminary ruling — Handens tingsrätt — Interpretation of Articles 28 EC to 30 EC and of Directive 2003/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003 amending Directive 94/25/EC on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft (OJ 2003 L 214, p. 18) — Prohibition of the use of maritime vehicles with outboard motors other than on general navigable waterways

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.

Directive 94/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 1994 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft, as amended by Directive 2003/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003, does not preclude national regulations which, for reasons relating to the protection of the environment, prohibit the use of personal watercraft on waters other than designated waterways;

2.

Articles 34 TFEU and 36 TFEU do not preclude such national regulations, provided that:

—

the competent national authorities are required to adopt the implementing measures provided for in order to designate waters other than general navigable waterways on which personal watercraft may be used;

—

those authorities have actually made use of the power conferred on them in that regard and designated the waters which satisfy the conditions laid down in the national regulations, and

—

such measures have been adopted within a reasonable period after the entry into force of those regulations.

It is for the national court to ascertain whether those conditions have been satisfied in the main proceedings.

3.

Article 8(1) of Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations is to be interpreted as meaning that an amendment made to a draft technical regulation already notified to the European Commission, pursuant to the first subparagraph of that provision, and which contains, in relation to the notified draft, merely a relaxation of the conditions of use of the product in question and which, therefore, reduces the possible impact of the technical regulation on trade, is not a significant alteration of the draft for the purposes of the third subparagraph of that provision and need not be notified beforehand to the Commission. In the absence of such an obligation of prior notification, the failure to inform the Commission of a non-significant amendment to a technical regulation, prior to its adoption, does not affect the applicability of that regulation.

(1)  OJ C 36, 11.2.2006.