Order — ECLI:EU:C:1997:451
Date: 1997-10-01
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Full Court
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Concepts: Allocation of jurisdiction among the various Community courts;Applications by Member States or institutions
Procedure: Action for annulment
Origin: Italy

Summary of the O r d e r 
Procedure — Division of powers between the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance — 
Action for annulment — Actions by Member States — Concept — Action brought before the 
Court of Justice by a regional authority of a Member State — Manifest lack of jurisdiction of the 
Court of Justice — Referral to the Court of First Instance 
(EC Treaty, Art. 173; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 47(2); Council Decisions 88/591, 
93/350 and 94/149) 
Since the entry into force of Decision 
94/149, the jurisdiction of the Court of Jus­
tice is limited to actions brought by a Mem­
ber State or by a Community institution. 
In that respect, it is clear from the general 
scheme of the Treaties that the term Member 
State, for the purposes of the institutional 
provisions and, in particular, those relating 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-180/97 
to proceedings before the courts, refers only 
to government authorities of the Member 
States of the European Communities and 
cannot include the governments of regions 
or of autonomous communities, irrespective 
of the powers they may have. If the contrary 
were true, it would undermine the institu­
tional balance provided for by the Treaties, 
which determine, inter alia, the conditions 
under which the Member States, that is to 
say the States party to the Treaties establish­
ing the Communities and the Accession 
Treaties, participate in the functioning of the 
Community institutions. It is not possible 
for the European Communities to comprise 
a greater number of Member States than the 
number of States between which they were 
established. 
Accordingly, when an action for annulment 
is brought before it on the basis of the fourth 
paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty by a 
regional authority, which must be considered 
to be a legal person for the purposes of that 
provision, the Court of Justice clearly has no 
jurisdiction to take cognizance of it and must 
refer it to the Court of First Instance pursu­
ant to the second paragraph of Article 47 of 
the EC Statute of the Court of Justice. 
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