Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope - Regulations

(Art. 253 EC)

2. Transport - Air transport - Registration and operation of civil subsonic jet aeroplanes - Limitation of noise emissions of aeroplanes - Prohibition of re-engining with engines with a by-pass ratio of less than 3 - Breach of the principle of proportionality - None

(Council Regulation No 925/1999, Art. 2(2))

3. International agreements - Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation - GATT 1994 - Not possible to rely on the WTO rules in order to contest the lawfulness of a Community act - Exceptions - Community measure intended to implement a WTO rule or expressly and specifically referring thereto

(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994)

Summary

1. The statement of reasons required by Article 253 EC must be adapted to the nature of the act in question. It must disclose in a clear and unequivocal fashion the reasoning followed by the Community institution which adopted the measure in such a way as to make the persons concerned aware of the reasons for the measure and to enable the Court to exercise its power of review. It is not necessary for details of all relevant factual and legal aspects to be given. The question whether the statement of the grounds for an act meets the requirements of Article 253 EC must be assessed with regard not only to its wording but also to its context and to all the legal rules governing the matter in question. If the contested measure clearly discloses the essential objective pursued by the institution, it would be excessive to require a specific statement of reasons for the various technical choices made. The statement of reasons in a regulation of general application cannot be required to specify the various facts, frequently very numerous and complex, on the basis of which the regulation was adopted, nor a fortiori to provide a more or less complete technical evaluation of those facts. That is particularly the case where the relevant factual and technical elements are well known to the circles concerned.

( see paras 46-47, 51 )

2. The Community legislature has wide legislative powers in the field of the common transport policy as regards the adoption of appropriate common rules. In reviewing the exercise of such powers, the Court cannot substitute its own assessment for that of the Community legislature, but must confine itself to examining whether that latter assessment contains a manifest error or constitutes a misuse of powers or whether the authority in question clearly exceeded the bounds of its discretion. Where implementation by the Council of a common policy requires it to assess a complex economic situation, its discretion is exercisable not only in relation to the nature and scope of the provisions which are to be adopted but also, to a certain extent, to the findings as to the basic facts, especially in the sense that it is free to base its assessment on findings of a general nature.

In view of those principles, it does not appear that the Council, when adopting Regulation No 925/1999 on the registration and operation within the Community of certain types of civil subsonic jet aeroplanes, committed a manifest error of assessment by considering it necessary to authorise the re-engining of aeroplanes only using engines with a by-pass ratio of 3 or more. In this respect, the Council could reasonably take into consideration that the application of separate criteria relating to the reduction of noise, fuel burn and gaseous emissions would have represented a highly complex operation. In the same way, it could reasonably consider that reference to a single technical criterion could remove the uncertainties which specific standards might allow to persist.

( see paras 63-65, 72-73 )

3. Having regard to their nature and structure, the WTO agreements are not in principle among the rules in the light of which the Court is to review the lawfulness of acts of the Community institutions. It is only where the Community intended to implement a particular obligation assumed in the context of the WTO, or where the Community measure refers expressly to precise provisions of the WTO agreements, that it is for the Court to review the lawfulness of the Community measure in question in the light of the WTO rules.

( see paras 93-94 )