Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:511
Date: 2001-10-04
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Veterinary legislation
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - inadmissible
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Appeals — Admissibility — Decisions against which an appeal may be brought — 
Examination by the Court of its own motion — Application for the annulment of a 
judgment of the Court of First Instance in so far as it declared it unnecessary to rule on an 
objection of inadmissibility brought against an action that was dismissed as unfounded — 
Dismissed 
(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 49(1)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-23/00 P 
The Court must examine of its own motion 
whether the claims formulated by an 
appellant are directed against a decision 
of the Court of First Instance that is open to 
appeal under the first paragraph of 
Article 49 of the EC Statute of the Court 
of Justice. 
Decisions which dispose of a procedural 
issue concerning a plea of inadmissibility, 
within the meaning of that provision, are 
decisions which adversely affect one of the 
parties by upholding or rejecting that 
objection of inadmissibility. 
That is not the case where the contested 
judgment shows that the Court of First 
Instance considered that it was not necess­
ary to rule on the objection of inadmis­
sibility raised by the defendant since the 
claims by the applicants had in any event to 
be dismissed on the merits. 
It is for the Court of First Instance to assess 
whether the proper administration of jus­
tice justifies the dismissal of the action on 
the merits without ruling on the objection 
of inadmissibility raised by the defendant, a 
course of action which cannot be regarded 
as adversely affecting the latter. 
(see paras 46, 50-52) 
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