Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope – Reference to the legal basis of a measure

(Art. 253 EC)

2. Community law – Principles – Legal certainty – Community legislation

3. Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope

(Arts 230 EC, 249 EC and 253 EC)

4. European Communities – Conferred powers – Internal and external powers – Duty to indicate the legal basis of a measure

(Arts 5, first para., EC, 133 EC and 175 EC)

5. Acts of the institutions – Indication of the legal basis

(Arts 133 EC, 175 EC and 300(2) EC)

Summary

1. The obligation to give reasons, enshrined in Article 253 EC, requires that all the measures concerned should contain a statement of the reasons which led the institution to adopt them, in order that the Court may exercise its power of review and that the Member States and the third parties concerned may learn of the conditions under which the Community institutions have applied the Treaty. The obligation to indicate the legal basis of a measure is related to the duty to state reasons. Although failure to refer to a precise provision of the Treaty need not necessarily constitute an infringement of essential procedural requirements if the legal basis for a measure may be determined from other parts of the measure, such explicit reference is, however, indispensable where, in its absence, the parties concerned and the Court are left uncertain as to the precise legal basis.

(see paras 37-38, 56)

2. The requirement of legal certainty means that the binding nature of any act intended to have legal effects must be derived from a provision of Community law which prescribes the legal form to be taken by that act and which must be expressly indicated therein as its legal basis.

(see para. 39)

3. The obligation to state reasons, which is justified in particular by the need for the Court to be able to exercise judicial review, must apply to all acts which may be the subject of an action for annulment, that is to say, to any measures adopted by the institutions, whatever their form, which are intended to have binding legal effects.

A decision of the Council establishing the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Community with regard to certain proposals submitted at the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora produces binding legal effects, in so far as it establishes the Community position as regards areas within its competence and is binding in nature, first, with respect to the Council and the Commission and, second, with respect to the Member States inasmuch as it obliges them to defend that position. Therefore, that decision must be reasoned and must therefore indicate the legal basis on which it is founded in order, in particular, that the Court may be able to exercise its powers of review.

(see paras 42-45)

4. The legal basis of a Community act must also be indicated in the light of the principle of conferred powers enshrined in the first paragraph of Article 5 EC, according to which the Community must act within the powers conferred on it and of the objectives assigned to it by the Treaty in both the internal action and the international action of the Community. In that connection, the appropriate legal basis has constitutional significance, since, having only conferred powers, the Community must tie that decision to a Treaty provision which empowers it to approve such a measure.

Furthermore, the indication of the legal basis determines the division of powers between the Community and the Member States.

As regards the adoption by the Council a decision establishing the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Community with regard to certain proposals submitted at the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the application of Article 175 EC or Article 133 EC alone would not have had the same implications for the division of powers between the Community and the Member States as a combined application of those two provisions, since Article 133 EC confers powers exclusive to the Community, whereas Article 175 EC provides for powers shared between the Community and the Member States. The failure to indicate a legal basis may thus give rise to confusion as to the nature of the Community’s powers and is liable to weaken the Community in the defence of its position in international negotiations.

(see paras 46-47, 49)

5. The indication of the legal basis also has particular importance for preserving the prerogatives of the Community institutions concerned by the procedure for the adoption of a measure. As regards a decision of the Council establishing the position to be adopted on behalf of the Community with regard to certain proposals submitted at the 14 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, such an indication is liable to have an effect on the powers of the Parliament, given that Articles 133 EC, 175 EC, and 300(2) EC do not confer on it the same degree of involvement in the adoption of a measure. In the same way, an indication of the legal basis is necessary in order to determine the voting procedure within the Council, since in that regard, the first subparagraph of Article 300(2) EC provides that the Council is to act by qualified majority except, first, when the agreement covers a field for which unanimity is required for the adoption of internal rules and, second, for the agreements referred to in Article 310 EC.

(see para. 48)