Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving choices of economic policy - Commission decision prohibiting the dispatch of animals of a particular species from certain parts of a Member State's territory in order to prevent an epidemic from spreading - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of individuals

(EC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.; Council Directive 90/425; Commission Decisions 93/566, 93/621, 93/671, 93/720, 94/27, 94/178 and 94/292)

2 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving choices of economic policy - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of individuals - Prohibition of dispatch of animals of a particular species from certain parts of a Member State's territory in order to prevent an epidemic from spreading - Principles of non-discrimination and proportionality - Right to property - Freedom to pursue a trade or occupation - Breach - None - Existence of legal basis - Liability not incurred

(EC Treaty, Art. 40(3), second subpara., and Art. 215, second para.; Council Directive 90/425; Commission Decisions 93/566, 93/621, 93/671, 93/720, 94/27, 94/178 and 94/292)

Summary

3 Decisions 93/566, 93/621, 93/671, 93/720, 94/27, 94/178 and 94/292, adopted by the Commission in order to control classical swine fever, on the basis of Directive 90/425 concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market, and prohibiting the dispatch of live pigs or pigmeat from certain parts of a Member State's territory to other parts of that territory or to other Member States, constitute legislative measures involving choices of economic policy for the adoption of which the Commission has a broad discretion. Those decisions can therefore cause the Community to incur liability only if the Commission manifestly and seriously disregarded a superior rule of law for the protection of individuals.

4 Decisions 93/566, 93/621, 93/671, 93/720, 94/27, 94/178 and 94/292, adopted by the Commission in order to control classical swine fever, on the basis of Directive 90/425 concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market, and prohibiting the dispatch of live pigs or fresh pigmeat from certain parts of a Member State's territory to other parts of that territory or to other Member States, do not engage the Community's liability in relation to a pig-farmer whose holding has not been affected by swine fever but is located within the parts of territory covered by the bans on dispatch. Adoption of those decisions did not constitute in his regard a serious, manifest breach of the principle of non-discrimination, of the right to property and the freedom to pursue a trade or occupation, of the principle of proportionality or of the rule requiring the existence of an appropriate legal basis.

As regards, first, the principle of non-discrimination, the situation in a region of a Member State having a very high concentration of pig farms in which many cases of swine fever have broken out and where the authorities have not kept the Commission informed of them is not comparable to the situation in another Member State or another region of the first State where, because of a much more limited number of pig farms and lack of reports of outbreaks of swine fever during the same period, the Commission could consider that the authorities were able to control swine fever effectively and that it was not necessary to adopt additional protective measures for the territorial administrative units affected or located close to those affected by the outbreak. Furthermore, since Directive 90/425 does not lay down any geographical or administrative criterion for defining the parts of territory to be covered by the protection and safeguard measures enacted by the Commission, the Commission could define the parts of territory according to the borders of administrative units.

Secondly, the mere fact that bans on dispatch have adverse repercussions on the farmer in question cannot ipso facto render those bans unlawful restrictions on the right to property and freedom to pursue a trade or occupation, since any safeguard measure involves, by definition, effects impinging on those fundamental rights.

Thirdly, emergency vaccination would not have been a less drastic means than the bans on dispatch decided on by the Commission.

Finally, Directive 90/425, which does not contain any provision restricting the measures adopted by the Commission to trade between Member States, to the exclusion of trade within a Member State, does not only cover the organization of veterinary and zootechnical checks but also enables the Commission to adopt safeguard measures, such as bans on dispatch.