Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Appeal - Pleas in law - Mere repetition of the pleas in law and arguments submitted to the Court of First Instance - Failure to identify the error of law relied on - Inadmissibility

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a (now Art. 225 EC); EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

2. Non-contractual liability - Liability of the Community under Article 215 of the Treaty (now Article 288 EC) - Liability of the Member States for breaches of Community law - Identical conditions under which liability may be incurred - Sufficiently serious breach of Community law

(EC Treaty, Art. 215 (now Art. 288 EC))

3. Approximation of laws - Cosmetic products - Directive 76/768 - List of substances whose use is prohibited - Amendment procedure - Consultation of the Adaptation Committee by the Commission - No opinion delivered - Commission's withdrawal of its proposal - Whether permissible

(Council Directive 76/768)

Summary

1. It follows from Article 168a of the Treaty (now Article 225 EC), the first paragraph of Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure that an appeal must indicate precisely the contested elements of the judgment which the appellant seeks to have set aside, and also the legal arguments specifically advanced in support of the appeal. That requirement is not satisfied by an appeal which, without even including an argument specifically identifying the error of law allegedly vitiating the contested judgment, confines itself to reproducing the pleas in law and arguments previously submitted to the Court of First Instance. Such an appeal amounts in reality to no more than a request for re-examination of the application submitted to the Court of First Instance, which the Court of Justice does not have jurisdiction to undertake.

( see paras 34-35 )

2. The conditions under which the Community may incur non-contractual liability for damage caused by its institutions or by its servants in the performance of their duties cannot, in the absence of particular justification, differ from those governing the liability of the State for damage caused to individuals by a breach of Community law. The protection of the rights which individuals derive from Community law cannot vary depending on whether a national authority or a Community authority is responsible for the damage.

Community law confers a right to reparation where three conditions are met: the rule of law infringed must be intended to confer rights on individuals; the breach must be sufficiently serious; and there must be a direct causal link between the breach and the damage sustained by the injured parties.

As to the sufficiently serious breach of Community law, as regards both Community liability under Article 215 of the Treaty (now Article 288 EC) and Member State liability for breaches of Community law, the decisive test for finding that there has been such a breach is whether the Member State or the Community institution concerned manifestly and gravely disregarded the limits on its discretion. Where the Member State or the institution in question has only considerably reduced, or even no, discretion, the mere infringement of Community law may be sufficient to establish the existence of a sufficiently serious breach. The general or individual nature of a measure taken by an institution is not, in that regard, a decisive criterion for identifying the limits of the discretion enjoyed by the institution in question.

( see paras 41-44, 46 )

3. Where no opinion has been delivered by the Adaptation Committee, set up by Directive 76/768 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to cosmetic products, on measures to restrict the maximum acceptable level of a substance used in the preparation of cosmetic products, the Commission is not obliged to submit the same measures, without amendment, to the Council. In delicate and controversial cases the Commission must have a sufficiently broad discretion and enough time and is therefore entitled to withdraw its proposal for measures even after the Adaptation Committee has met.

( see paras 65-66 )