Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2001:171
Date: 2001-06-27
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible

SUMMARY — CASE T-166/99 
Summary 
Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and 
individual concern to them - Council decision laying down the detailed 
arrangements for the integration of the Schengen Secretariat into the General 
Secretariat of the Council - Action brought by persons employed in the Schengen 
Secretariat but not satisfying the conditions for appointment as officials in the 
General Secretariat of the Council - Inadmissibility 
(Arts 230, fourth para., EC and 249 EC; Council Decision No 1999/307) 
The term 'decision' in the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC has the technical 
meaning employed in Article 249 EC. A decision as so defined is distinguished from 
an act of a legislative nature, and the criterion for distinguishing between them lies 
in the general application or otherwise of the measure in question. A measure cannot 
be regarded as constituting a decision if it applies to objectively determined 
situations and produces legal effects with respect to categories of persons envisaged 
generally and in the abstract. In this connection, the fact that a measure may have 
different specific effects for the individuals to whom it applies cannot deprive it of 
its general and abstract character. Moreover, the general application and hence the 
legislative nature of a measure are not affected by the fact that it is possible to 
determine the number or even the identity of the persons to whom it applies at a 
given moment, as long as it is established that it applies by virtue of an objective 
legal or factual situation, defined in relation to the objective of the measure. 
Council Decision 1999/307 laying down the detailed arrangements for the 
integration of the Schengen Secretariat into the General Secretariat of the Council, 
despite being entitled a 'decision', is a measure of general application which applies 
to objectively determined situations. 
I-A - 140 
ANDRES DE DIOS AND OTHERS v COUNCIL 
Moreover, it cannot be considered that, in that it affects them by reason of certain 
attributes which are peculiar to them or by reason of circumstances which 
differentiate them from all other persons, that measure is of individual concern to 
persons who were indeed in the service of the Schengen Secretariat, long before its 
integration into the General Secretariat of the Council, but who do not satisfy the 
conditions set out in Article 3 to be appointed as officials in the General Secretariat 
of the Council. 
(see paras 35-36, 40-41, 44, 56) 
See: 16/62 and 17/62 Confédération nationale des producteurs de fruits et legumes and 
Others v Council [1962] ECR 487; 60/81 R and 190/81 R IBM v Commission [1981] 
ECR 1857, para. 9; 307/81 Alusuissev Counciland Commission [1982] ECR 3463, para. 
9; C-168/93 Gibraltar and Gibraltar Development v Council [1992] ECR I-4009, para. 
11 ; T-472/93 Campo Ebro and Others v Council [1995] ECR II-421, para. 36; T-107/94 
Kik v Council and Commission [1995] ECR II-1717, para. 35; C-409/96 Sveriges 
Betodlares Centralförening and Henrikson v Commission [1997] ECR I-7531, para. 37; 
T-109/97 Molkerei Grosbraunshainand Bene Nahrungsmittel v Commission [1998] ECR 
II-3533. para. 52, and the case-law cited; T-114/99 CSR PAMPRYL v Commission [1999] 
ECR II-3331, para. 46 
I-A - 141