Judgments of Court of Justice of the European Communities nº C-206/06, of July 17, 2008

In Case C-206/06,

REFERENCE for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC from the Rechtbank Groningen (Netherlands), made by decision of 19 April 2006, received at the Court on 2 May 2006, in the proceedings

 Essent Netwerk Noord BV,

supported by

 Nederlands Elektriciteit Administratiekantoor BV

v

 Aluminium Delfzijl BV,

and in the indemnification proceedings

 Aluminium Delfzijl BV

v

 Staat der Nederlanden

and in the indemnification proceedings

 Essent Netwerk Noord BV

v

 Nederlands Elektriciteit Administratiekantoor BV,

 Saranne BV,

THE COURT (Third Chamber),

composed of A. Rosas (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, U. Lõhmus, J.N. Cunha Rodrigues, A. Ó Caoimh and A. Arabadjiev, Judges,

Advocate General: P. Mengozzi,

Registrar: M. Ferreira, Principal Administrator,

having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 10 May 2007,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

-        Essent Netwerk BV, as universal successor in title as of 1 January 2005 to Essent Netwerk Noord BV, by P.E. Mazel and E. Hamminga, advocaten,

-        Aluminium Delfzijl BV, by A.J. van den Berg and M.Van Leeuwen, advocaten,

-        Nederlands Elektriciteit Administratiekantoor BV, by J.K. de Pree and Y. de Vries, advocaten,

-        the Netherlands Government, by H.G. Sevenster, P.P.J. van Ginneken and D.J.M. de Grave, acting as Agents,

-        the Commission of the European Communities, by R. Lyal and H. van Vliet, acting as Agents.

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 24 January 2008,

gives the following

Judgment

1         This reference for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Articles 25 EC, 87(1) EC and 90 EC.

2         The reference was made in the course of proceedings between Essent Netwerk Noord BV (-Essent Netwerk-), an electricity net operator, and Aluminium Delfzijl BV (-Aldel-), a purchaser of electricity and transport services, regarding a price surcharge for the transmission of electricity in the period from 1 August 2000 to 31 December 2000.

3         In connection with an intervention and with indemnification proceedings, the dispute also involves Nederlands Elektriciteit Administratiekantoor BV, formerly Samenwerkende ElektriciteitsProduktiebedrijven NV (-SEP-), a statutorily-designated company, the State of the Netherlands and Saranne BV, a subsidiary of SEP and a high-voltage net operator.

 Legal context

 Community law

4         Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity (OJ 1997 L 27, p. 20) (-the Directive-) sets out common rules relating to the generation, transmission and distr...

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