Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Procedure ° Action brought by a natural or legal person seeking the issue of directions to the Community institutions, Member States or natural or legal persons, a decision finding against Member States or natural or legal persons, or the annulment of agreements concluded between natural or legal persons ° Manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the Community judicature

(EEC Treaty, Art. 164 et seq.)

2. Procedure ° Application originating proceedings ° Formal requirements ° Identification of subject-matter of the proceedings

(EEC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 19; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 44 (1)(c))

3. Procedure ° Application originating proceedings ° Formal requirements ° Summary of the pleas relied on ° Plea in law not set out in the application ° Reference to all the annexes ° Inadmissible

(EEC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 19; Rules of Procedure of the Court of the First Instance, Art. 44(1)(c))

4. Actions against Community institutions for failure to act ° Failure remedied after commencement of the action ° Application becoming devoid of purpose ° No need to proceed to judgment

(EEC Treaty, Art. 175)

Summary

1. The Community court manifestly lacks jurisdiction to issue directions to Community institutions, to Member States or to natural or legal persons, or to find unlawful, on whatever ground, the actions of Member States or of natural or legal persons on the initiative of natural or legal persons, or to annul agreements concluded by such persons.

2. Claims seeking annulment of all acts of the Council and the Commission adopted in a specific area on the ground of manifest lack of legitimacy, without any indication of the acts for which annulment is sought, are not sufficiently precise to be admissible.

3. Under Article 19 of the Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 44(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, all applications must indicate the subject-matter of the proceedings and include a brief statement of grounds relied on. The information given must be sufficiently clear and precise to enable the defendant to prepare his defence and the Court to give a ruling, if appropriate, without other information in support. In order to ensure legal certainty and the sound administration of justice, if an action is to be admissible, the essential facts and law on which it is based must be apparent from the text of the application itself, even if only stated briefly, provided the statement is coherent and comprehensible. If specific points in the text of the application can be supported and completed by references to specific passages in the documents attached, a general reference to other documents cannot compensate for the lack of essential information in the application itself, even if those documents are attached to the application. It is not for the Community judicature to do the work of the applicant and his lawyer by trying to locate and identify in the numerous annexes to which the application makes general reference the information which may support the claims formulated in the application.

4. Where, in an action for a declaration that a Community institution has failed to act, the act in question in the proceedings was adopted after they were brought, but before delivery of the judgment, the application becomes devoid of purpose so there is no longer any need to give a ruling.