IP/06/1794
Brussels, 13 December 2006
Freedom of establishment: infringement procedures against France The Commission has taken action to put an end to obstacles to freedom of establishment in France. It will formally request France to amend its rules requiring cereals traders to obtain an authorisation from an institution in which potential competitors participate, provided that they have storage capacity in France, as well as its rules requiring that traders in cereals have an address and a minimum activity in France plus the obligation to make monthly statistical declarations and to show all their commercial documents. The Commission considers that these restrictions are not compatible with freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services. The Commission will also formally request France to amend its rules on the establishment of shops. The Commission considers that the authorisation procedure is based on criteria not sufficiently objective and precise, most of them aimed at assessing the potential economic impact of the opening of a new shop, and is burdensome and unfair in that it gives a decision-making role to representatives of existing economic operators. The Commission considers that these provisions are not compatible with freedom of establishment. These formal requests take the form of “reasoned opinions”, the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. France – Cereals traders
In France, traders in cereals are required to obtain an authorisation granted by a body in which representatives of operators already active in the same sector participate. Additionally, such traders are obliged to maintain, in France, a minimum storage capacity, an address and a minimum level of activity. They are also required to make monthly statistical declarations and show all their commercial documents to the agents of an inter-trade body. The Commission considers that these restrictions are incompatible with freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services, and that they are not justified on health grounds as there are less restrictive measures for achieving this objective such as appropriate controls on traders.
France – Setting up of shops
The Commission considers that the French rules on commerce in town planning, which provide for an authorisation procedure for setting up a shop, does not comply with Article 43 of the EC Treaty on freedom of establishment. While the Commission accepts that the aims of protecting the environment and the needs of town and country planning are grounds for a public interest that might justify restrictions on the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the EC Treaty, it considers that the French procedure, much of which is based on considerations of a commercial nature such as the impact of the new shop on existing traders, which contains insufficiently self-evident and objective criteria which have to be assessed by the applicant, and which allows for participation in the decision-making process by representatives of the economic interests already installed, is not justified and not proportional to the public interest at stake.
Following a letter of formal notice in July 2005, the French authorities announced the adoption of new rules designed to meet the requirements of the Commission. However, since then the rules have not been amended, and the Commission has decided to pass on to the second stage of the infringement procedure provided for in Article 226 of the EC Treaty.
The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/eulaw/index_en.htm
