By an Action brought on 1^st February 2016, the European Commission claims that the Court of Justice should:

“… declare that, by failing to ensure that, for all ports in Nordrhein-Westfalen, the boundaries of each port are defined, that port security assessments and port security plans are established and that port security officers are approved, the Federal Republic of Germany has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2(3), 6, 7 and 9 of Directive 2005/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on enhancing port security …”.

The Commission filed this claim after an inspection carried out in 2013 which revealed that, for at least eleven of the ports in Nordrhein-Westfalen covered by Directive 2005/65/EC, neither security assessment had been carried out, nor the boundaries of the port facilities had also been defined. Furthermore, in a letter of 21 August 2013, the German authorities acknowledged that, with regard to eleven of the ports in Nordrhein-Westfalen covered by the directive, port security plans were lacking and no port security officer was appointed in any of the eleven ports.

Subsequent correspondence shows that the situation has not to date been remedied. For this reason the Commission has decided to pursue the present Action which was registered with the Court of Justice as Case C-58/16, European Commission v Federal Republic of Germany.