Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2011:860
Date: 2011-12-21
Language of the case: Polish
Subject matter: Accession;Agriculture and Fisheries;Sugar
Procedure: Action for annulment - successful;Appeal - successful
Origin: Poland

Summary of the Judgment Actions for annulment— Periods within which an action must be brought— Point from which that period starts to run— Action against a regulation adopted under the Act of Accession of 2003 brought by an acceding Member State— Period starting to run from the date of entry into force of the Treaty and of the Act of Accession of 2003 (Art. 230(2) and (5) EC; 2003 Act of Accession, Art. 2(3)) The European Union is a union based on the rule of law, its institutions being subject to review of the conformity of their acts, inter alia, with the Treaty and the general principles of law. Those principles are the very foundation of that union and compliance with them means, as is now provided for expressly in Article 4(2) TEU, that the new Member States are to be treated on the basis of equality with the old Member States. Therefore, the new Member States must enjoy, in relation to all measures which were adopted on the basis of Article 2(3) of the Accession Treaty of 2003 and which affect them in their capacity as Member States, a right of action as applicants pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 230 EC. Given that that status was acquired by the new Member States only on the date of entry into force of the Accession Treaty and of the 2003 Act of Accession, it must be held that, in relation to those States, the period laid down in the fifth paragraph of Article 230 EC began to run, in relation to those acts, only as from that date, that is, in the present case, 1 May 2004. (see paras 36-39)