ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
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Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation increasing the tariff quota for imports of bananas for traders affected by a natural disaster

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.; Commission Regulation No 2791/94)

Summary

The action brought by banana traders for the annulment of Regulation No 2791/94 on the exceptional allocation of a quantity additional to the tariff quota for imports of bananas in 1994 as a result of tropical storm Debbie is inadmissible.

In the first place, the regulation is a legislative measure of general scope. Its purpose is to remedy the consequences of a natural disaster and it conforms with the aims of the common agricultural policy regarding stabilization of the market and the maintenance of reasonable prices for banana supplies to consumers, the operators amongst whom the additional quantity is allocated being defined in an objective way in the light of the damage caused by the tropical storm of which they were victims.

In the second place, although a regulation which is a legislative measure may still be of individual concern, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty, to some traders, that is not the case with regard to the regulation at issue here. The fact that the applicants belong to a closed category of traders ineligible, owing to the nature of their supply to the Community market, for the additional quota, is not sufficient to distinguish them from all other traders, of whatever category, who are likewise ineligible because they were not affected by the storm, and because in any event the regulation did not affect the quantities of bananas allocated to them, any more than it affected the specific rights vested in them.
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Actions against Community institutions for failure to act ° Time-limits ° Time-barred ° Possibility of relying on the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations ° Condition

(EC Treaty, Art. 175)

Summary

In order to be able to rely on the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations so as to escape the time-bar resulting from the failure to observe the time-limit laid down by Article 175 of the Treaty for bringing an action for a declaration of failure to act, an applicant must be able to show hopes based on specific assurances given to him by the Community administration. Neither public statements of a general nature made by a member of the Commission nor repeated contacts between the person concerned and the Commission after it had been given formal notice constitute such specific assurances.
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Actions for annulment - Time-limits - Point from which time starts to run - Measure not notified to the applicant - Obligation for the person concerned to request the whole text of the measure within a reasonable time of becoming aware of its existence

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fifth para.)

Summary

For the purposes of the proceedings provided for in Article 173 of the Treaty, it is for the party who has knowledge of the existence of a measure concerning it but not notified to it and of which it seeks the annulment to request the whole text thereof within a reasonable period of time. A request made more than four months after the party concerned became aware of the existence of a measure must be regarded as not having been made within any period that could be considered reasonable and any subsequent action brought by that party will be clearly out of time.
Order of the Court of First Instance (First Chamber) of 4 October 1996. - Sveriges Betodlares Centralförening and Sven Åke Henrikson v Commission of the European Communities. - Common agricultural policy - Sugar beet - Regulation (EC) No 1734/95 - Specific agricultural conversion rate - No conversion rate for Sweden - Action for annulment - Inadmissibility. - Case T-197/95.



European Court reports 1996 Page II-01283



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Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation fixing a specific agricultural conversion rate in the sugar sector - No rate fixed for a Member State - Action by a grower and a growers' association in that State - Inadmissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.; Commission Regulation No 1734/95)

Summary

An action for annulment brought by a sugar beet grower against Regulation No 1734/95 fixing, for the 1994/95 marketing year, the specific agricultural conversion rate applicable to the minimum sugar beet prices and the production levy and additional levy in the sugar sector is inadmissible in so far as that regulation does not fix a conversion rate applicable to the Member State from which the grower in question comes.

That regulation is, by its very nature, of general application. It applies by reason of an objective situation and produces legal effects vis-à-vis categories of persons considered in a general and abstract manner. A measure does not lose its nature as a regulation where the number and identity of the traders concerned might in theory have been known to the institution responsible for the measure at the time when it was adopted, as long as it is established that such application takes effect by virtue of an objective legal or factual situation defined by the measure in relation to its purpose. The fact that a measure applying objectively may have different specific effects on various categories of traders is also not inconsistent with its nature as a regulation.

Nor are the conditions satisfied which would allow the applicant to be regarded as individually concerned by that regulation, since he is not affected in his legal position by reason of circumstances in which he is differentiated from all other persons and distinguished individually as in the case of an addressee, in view of the fact that he is concerned only in his objective capacity as a grower within the sugar sector in the same way as any other grower in that sector.

An action for annulment brought against that same regulation by an association of sugar beet growers is also inadmissible since such an association is not entitled to bring an action where its members may not do so individually, the defence of common interests being insufficient in that regard.
Order of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber) of 30 September 1997. - Instituto Europeu de Formação Profissional Ldª v Commission of the European Communities. - European Social Fund - Reduction of financial assistance - Application for annulment - Time-limit - Inadmissibility. - Case T-151/95.



European Court reports 1997 Page II-01541



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1 Social policy - European Social Fund - Financial assistance for vocational training operations - Reduction of assistance initially granted - Exclusive power of the Commission - Transfer of the Community's rights to the Member States provided for in Article 6(2) of Regulation No 2950/83 - Purpose

(Council Regulation No 2950/83, Art. 6(1) and (2))

2 Actions for annulment of measures - Time-limits - Point from which time starts to run - Act neither published nor notified to the applicant - Precise knowledge of the content and grounds - Obligation, once the existence of the act is known, to ask for the full text thereof within a reasonable period

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fifth para.)

Summary

3 Although any national authority which has competence with regard to the financing of European Social Fund operations may, in a final payment claim submitted in accordance with Article 5(4) of Regulation No 2950/83 on the implementation of Decision 83/516 on the tasks of the Fund, propose to reduce financial assistance granted by the Fund, it is, however, the Commission which takes the decision on final payment claims and it is the Commission, and the Commission alone, which has the power to reduce financial assistance in accordance with Article 6(1) of that regulation. It follows that it is the Commission which assumes, vis-à-vis the recipient, the legal responsibility for the decision by which its assistance was reduced, irrespective of whether that reduction was or was not proposed by the national authority concerned.

Furthermore, the transfer of rights referred to in Article 6(2) of the regulation does not affect in any way the power under Article 6(1) to reduce European Social Fund assistance but only the rights of the Community to the refund of advances improperly paid, so that the transfer of rights necessarily presupposes a prior Commission decision reducing the assistance.

4 Where an act is not published or notified, the period within which proceedings for annulment are to be instituted cannot start to run until the third party concerned has precise knowledge of the content and grounds of the act in question, provided however that he asks, within a reasonable period from the date at which he becomes aware of its existence, for the full text of the act in question.
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Procedure - Intervention - Persons having an interest - Dispute concerning the validity of a directive in the field of social policy - Action brought by an organization for the representation of employers at Community level which was not able to participate in the collective bargaining which preceded the adoption of the directive - Application for leave to intervene by national organizations which are members of the applicant organization and claim to have an interest of their own, arising from their role at the stage of adoption of national measures to transpose directives - Admissibility

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 37, second para.; Council Directive 96/34)

Summary

Under the second paragraph of Article 37 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, the right to intervene is subject only to the condition that the applicant for leave to intervene establishes an interest in the result of the case submitted to the Court of First Instance.

In an action for annulment of Directive 96/34 on the framework agreement on parental leave, brought by an organization which represents at European level the interests of craft, small and medium-sized enterprises but which was not able to participate in the collective bargaining which preceded the adoption of the directive, an interest in the result of the case is established by national associations which are members of the applicant, represent the same interests at national level and are able to demonstrate an interest of their own, distinct from that of the applicant and connected with the limitation imposed by the directive on their freedom of negotiation at the stage of the adoption of national measures for the transposition of the directive.
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Applications for interim measures - Suspension of operation of a measure - Suspension of operation of a decision ordering recovery of aid - Conditions for granting - Serious and irreparable damage - Concept - Burden of proof

(EC Treaty, Art. 185; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2))

Summary

The urgency of the adoption of interim measures must be considered by examining whether the implementation of the contested measures, prior to the intervention of the decision of the Community judicature on the main issue, is such as to give rise, for the party requesting the measures, to serious and irreparable damage which could not be put right if the contested decision were annulled or which, despite their interim nature, would be disproportionate to the defendant's interest in having the measures implemented, even when they are the subject of legal proceedings. It is for the applicant to prove that those conditions are satisfied.

An application for interim measures seeking suspension of the operation of a decision by which the Commission, finding that the sale of land at a price below its market value, concluded between the applicant local authority and an undertaking, constituted aid contrary to the Treaty, ordered that aid to be recovered by the Member State in question must be dismissed if the applicant has failed to adduce any convincing arguments to demonstrate the soundness of its contention that a risk of serious and irreparable damage would arise, in the first place, from the obligation under which it might find itself to institute legal proceedings against its contracting party to recover the alleged State aid and, second, from a possible fundamental variation of the contractual terms of the sale, or even the annulment of the contract, by the other contracting party.
Order of the Court of First Instance (Fourth Chamber, extended composition) of 14 March 1997. - Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Luftfahrt-Unternehmen and Hapag-Lloyd Fluggesellschaft mbH v Commission of the European Communities. - Action for annulment - Contested decision withdrawn in the course of proceedings - No need to proceed to judgment. - Case T-25/96.



European Court reports 1997 Page II-00363



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Actions for annulment of measures - Action challenging a decision - Contested decision repealed in the course of the proceedings on account of clerical errors and a new, substantively identical decision adopted - Application rendered devoid of purpose - No need to proceed to judgment where the applicant has no interest in obtaining annulment

Summary

When, on account of clerical error in a decision which is being contested in an action for annulment, a Community institution repeals that decision in the course of the proceedings in order to replace it with a new decision which is substantively identical, that repeal renders the application devoid of purpose and it is not necessary for the case to proceed to judgment unless the applicant can establish an interest in obtaining its annulment.
Order of the President of the Court of First Instance of 29 November 1996. - J. Antonissen v Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities. - Milk quotas - Damage caused by the Community - Application for interim relief - Application for damages against the Community - Provisional nature - None. - Case T-179/96 R.



European Court reports 1996 Page II-01641



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Applications for interim measures - Interim measures - Conditions for granting - Measures not prejudging the decision on the substance - Main action concerning non-contractual liability of the Community - Payment of sums by way of advance on the damages claimed - Excluded

(EC Treaty, Arts 178, 186 and 215, second para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 107(3) and (4))

Summary

Interim measures which can be ordered by the judge dealing with an interlocutory application cannot have any object other than to safeguard, during the course of the procedure before the Court, the interests of one of the parties to the proceedings in order to prevent the judgment in the main action from being rendered illusory by being deprived of any practical effect. Such measures, in accordance with Article 107(3) and (4) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, are therefore provisional and in principle lapse when final judgment is delivered. Consequently, they must not prejudge the decision on the substance of the case, that is to say they must not already decide the consequences of the decision to be given subsequently on the substance of the action.

An interlocutory application seeking an order that the Community pay amounts corresponding to a part of the amount at which the applicant evaluates the damage suffered in his main action under Article 178 and the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty must therefore be dismissed.

To grant such an application would amount to anticipating the argument on the substance of the case since, when assessing whether there was a prima facie case, the judge dealing with the application would have to rule whether there was prima facie non-contractual liability on the part of the Community and then grant in part the measures sought in the main application, without the merits of that application in the light of the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty having been examined. However, a finding of liability, with the effects thereby entailed, cannot be taken on the basis of a prima facie case; it must be based on a definitive assessment of the facts and pleas in law put forward, and therefore requires that a procedure be followed in which all the parties are guaranteed the right to a fair hearing.
Order of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber, extended composition) of 3 June 1997. - Gencor Ltd v Commission of the European Communities. - Intervention - Confidentiality. - Case T-102/96.



European Court reports 1997 Page II-00879



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Procedure - Intervention - Service of copies of the pleadings on the interveners - Derogation - Confidential treatment - Conditions - Examination of information covered by a confidentiality agreement between the applicant and a person not party to the proceedings

(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 116(2))

Summary

Article 116(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance lays down the principle that a copy of every document served on the parties must be served on the interveners. It is only by way of derogation from that principle that the second sentence of that provision permits certain documents to be treated as confidential, thereby exempting them from the said requirement that copies must be served.

For the purpose of determining the conditions under which confidential treatment may be given to certain documents in the file, it is necessary, in respect of each document, to balance the legitimate concern of the party concerned to prevent substantial damage to its business interests and the intervener's equally legitimate concern to have the necessary information for the purpose of being fully in a position to assert its rights and to state its case before the Court.

Although natural or legal persons other than the parties to the dispute are entitled to protection in respect of confidential information concerning them, the fact that a confidentiality agreement has been concluded between the party concerned and a third party cannot mean that confidential treatment is automatically to be accorded to the information covered by that agreement. The existence of such an agreement cannot justify derogation from the rule laid down by Article 116(2) of the Rules of Procedure.

It is only once an examination has been carried out to determine the confidentiality or otherwise of each document in respect of which an application for confidential treatment, duly supported by reasons, has been submitted and, as the case may be, once the interests of the third party and of the interveners have been weighed in the balance, that the Community judicature can rule on the merits of the application, since the existence of a confidentiality agreement between the party concerned and the third party in question cannot preclude such an examination.
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Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Definition - Measures producing binding legal effects - Documents drawn up by the Commission's officials in the course of an investigation - Preparatory documents

(EC Treaty, Art. 173; Council Regulation No 17, Arts 3(1), 11 and 14)

Summary

Acts or decisions against which an action for annulment may be brought under Article 173 of the Treaty are measures which produce binding legal effects capable of affecting the interests of the applicant by bringing about a significant change in its legal position. In the case of acts or decisions adopted by a procedure involving several stages, an act is in principle challengeable only if it is a measure definitively laying down the position of the institution on the conclusion of that procedure, and not an intermediate step intended to pave the way for the final decision.

Documents, referred to as reports, drawn up by the Commission's officials during an investigation into an undertaking under Article 14(2) of Regulation No 17 and containing a summary of what was said by that undertaking's representatives in the course of the investigation, cannot be regarded as actionable measures in so far as they cannot be considered to affect the undertaking's legal position immediately and irreversibly.
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1 Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Concept - Measures producing binding legal effects - Letter from the Commission refusing an organisation for consumer protection access to non-confidential documents in an anti-dumping proceeding

(EC Treaty, Art. 173)

2 Actions for annulment - Action contesting a decision confirming a decision which was not contested in good time - Inadmissible - Meaning of a confirmatory decision

(EC Treaty, Art. 173)

Summary

1 Only measures with binding legal effects capable of affecting the interests of the applicant by bringing about a distinct change in his legal position are capable of being the subject-matter of an application for annulment.

The interests of a consumer protection organisation are prejudiced in a direct and immediate manner by a letter from the Commission informing it that it cannot be considered to be a party with an interest in the proceeding and, consequently, refusing it access to a non-confidential file.

In that context, the particular form in which acts and decisions are adopted is, in principle, immaterial so far as concerns the possibility of their being challenged by an action for annulment, and it is their substance which must be examined in order to determine whether they constitute measures within the meaning of Article 173. Where the decision in question contains a clear and definitive consideration of the request put to the Commission, the character of the decision cannot be called in question merely on the ground that the request was considered only by the Commission's staff.

2 An application for annulment brought against a decision which merely confirms an earlier decision which has not been challenged in good time is inadmissible. A decision is a mere confirmation of an earlier decision where it contains no new factors as compared with the earlier measure and is not preceded by any reexamination of the situation of the addressee of the earlier measure.