Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Action for annulment of measures - Measures against which actiona may be brought - Measures intended to have legal effects - Resolution of the Parliament on the seat of the institutions and its principal place of work

(EEC Treaty, Art. 173; Resolution of the Parliament of 18 January 1989)

2. European Communities - Seat of the institutions - Determination - Power of the Member States - Power of the Parliament to determine its own internal organization - Conditions for exercise - Reciprocal obligation on the part of the Member States and the Community institutions to respect each other' s powers - Scope

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 25; EEC Treaty, Arts 5 and 142; EAEC Treaty, Art. 112)

3. European Communities - Seat of the institutions - Maintenance by the Parliament of essential infrastructure in its various places of work - Conditions

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 25; EEC Treaty, Arts 5 and 142; EAEC Treaty, Art. 112; Decision of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States of 8 April 1965, Art. 4)

4. Parliament - Power to determine its own internal organization - Determination of its policy regarding information - Discretion

5. Parliament - Power to determine its own internal organization - Determination of its needs in terms of staff and premises in its various places of work - Discretion

(Resolution of the Parliament of 18 January 1989)

Summary

1. In order to determine whether an action for the annulment of an act adopted by an institution will lie under Article 173 of the Treaty it is necessary to consider the nature of the act in question rather than its form and to determine whether it is intended to have legal effects.

The resolution on the seat of the institutions and the main place of work of the European Parliament, adopted by the latter on 18 January 1989, is an act against which an action for annulment can be brought. By designating the staff whose presence in Brussels is essential and instructing the competent bodies of the Parliament to take all appropriate steps for its implementation, that resolution is of a decision-making nature and may affect the guarantees provided for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in the relevant texts relating to the seat and places of work of the Parliament.

2. The Parliament is authorized to take appropriate measures to ensure the proper functioning and conduct of its proceedings by virtue of the power to determine its own internal organization conferred on it by Articles 25 of the ECSC Treaty, 142 of the EEC Treaty and 112 of the EAEC Treaty; however, under the rule imposing mutual duties of sincere cooperation on the Member States and the Community institutions, as embodied in particular in Article 5 of the EEC Treaty, its decisions must have regard to the powers of the Governments of the Member States to determine the seat of the institutions and the provisional decisions already taken in that regard in the meantime.

Although it is common ground that the Governments of the Member States have not yet discharged their obligation to determine the final seat of the institutions, that circumstance does not entail any widening of the discretion accorded to the Parliament in the exercise of the power to determine its own internal organization.

3. The Parliament must be in a position to maintain in the various places of work outside the place where its Secretariat is established the infrastructure essential for ensuring that it may fulfil in all those places the tasks which are entrusted to it by the Treaties.

However, any decision to transfer the Secretariat of the Parliament or the other departments, wholly or partially, de jure or de facto, would constitute a breach of Article 4 of the Decision of the Governments of the Member States on the provisional location of certain institutions and departments of the Communities and of the assurances which that decision was intended to give to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

4. It is for each institution to determine the methods, ways and means of pursuing its information policy, subject to the limits imposed by Community law. The obligation to provide the public with information concerning the work of an institution is all the more essential in the case of a Parliament elected by direct universal suffrage, which participates in the legislative process on behalf of its electorate.

In view of the fact that the tasks assigned to the Central Press Office of the Parliament are manifestly associated with the political activities of the Parliament which are conducted in Brussels, where a large number of journalists are accredited, an enlargement of the press service in that city does not exceed the discretion accorded to the Parliament in the exercise of the power to determine its own internal organization.

5. Since it is for the Parliament to assess the staff which it needs to have at its disposal in order to carry out its tasks in Brussels, the transfers of staff working for committees and delegations, responsible for providing information and dealing with studies and research, as provided for in the Resolution of 18 January 1989, do not exceed the discretion accorded to it in the exercise of the power to determine its own internal organization. The same applies to the decisions regarding premises which are inherent in the decisions regarding transfers.