Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Actions for damages ° ECSC ° Harm arising from decisions ° Basis of the claim ° Coexistence of Article 34 and the first paragraph of Article 40 of the Treaty

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 34 and Art. 40, first para.)

2. Non-contractual liability ° ECSC ° Conditions ° Appraisal of fault of such a nature as to render the Community liable ° Taking into account situations to be regulated, difficulties of applying legislation and discretion available to the institution

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40)

3. Non-contractual liability ° ECSC ° Legislative measure ° Community liability ° Conditions ° Similarities between conditions for liability laid down by ECSC and EEC Treaties ° Relevance ° Limits

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40; EEC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.)

4. Non-contractual liability ° ECSC ° Appeal against a judgment of the Court of First Instance declaring the Community liable on grounds of improper conduct by the Commission (Case T-120/89) ° Dismissal

5. Non-contractual liability ° ECSC ° Conditions ° Undertaking not having received, within the system of steel production and delivery quotas, the quotas corresponding to its situation ° Direct harm ° Evaluation ° Factors to be taken into consideration ° Special harm

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40)

Summary

1. The ECSC Treaty has provided two legal remedies, that under Article 34 and that under the first paragraph of Article 40, making it possible to seek to have the Community declared liable on the basis of the same requirement, which is that of the existence of fault. Although the first remedy relates specifically to the case of illegal measures declared void, there is nothing to justify limiting the scope of the second solely to cases in which the issue does not relate to the illegality of decisions.

Where an undertaking, which has brought proceedings to obtain damages as redress for harm which it alleges it has suffered by reason of decisions which it regards as involving a fault of such a nature as to render the Community liable, has relied primarily on Article 34 and in the alternative on Article 40, it is not necessary, in the context of an appeal, to determine whether the action was wholly or partially admissible on the basis of one or the other of those articles, since both provisions make it equally possible to obtain redress for the harm alleged by the undertaking. Whether the legal basis of its claim is Article 34 or Article 40, the undertaking was in any event entitled to seek to have the Community declared liable for that purpose.

2. In appraising the nature of the fault required by the provisions of Articles 34 and 40 of the ECSC Treaty in order to render the Community liable, reference should be made, in the absence of any details in the said provisions, to the areas and conditions in which the Community institution acts. In that respect it is necessary to take into account in particular the complexity of the situations which the institution must regulate, the difficulties of applying the legislation and the discretion available to the institution thereunder.

3. Even though it is possible to point to similarities between the conditions for liability laid down by the ECSC and the EEC Treaties and to be guided, in giving judgment in an action putting in issue the liability of the European Coal and Steel Community, by principles common to different situations in which an institution possesses a wide discretion to settle complex problems, it is in the light of the criteria evolved for the application of Articles 34 and 40 of the ECSC Treaty that the Community judicature must define the facts and characterize the fault or faults of such a nature as to render the Community liable.

4. The Court of First Instance, in the context of the findings and appreciations of fact which were a matter for itself alone and which it made in its judgment of 27 June 1991 in Case T-120/89, in holding that the facts submitted for its appreciation constituted such a manifest fault as to render the Community liable, applied the rules under which the Community' s liability may be put in issue in a manner which the Court of Justice does not regard as calling for criticism in the context of an appeal against the said judgment.

5. An undertaking which, in the context of the system of steel production and delivery quotas, has been compelled, by reason of the Commission' s unlawful and wrongful refusal to grant it adjustments of its delivery quotas, to sell a considerable part of its production on third country markets in unprofitable conditions, has suffered harm within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 34 of the ECSC Treaty, the evaluation of which must take account of all the factors related to the matters from which the harm arises and for which, if appropriate, compensation may be provided. However, when the harm suffered by the undertaking arises solely from the refusal with which it has met and not from the application of the quota system as a whole, the advantages which the undertaking as a whole has derived from the system are not to be taken into account.

Since the harm suffered arises from illegalities constituting faults on the part of the Commission, it could not have been normally foreseeable by the undertaking, which has therefore suffered harm going beyond the bounds of the risks inherent in the activities of the sector concerned.