Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Acts of the institutions — Choice of legal basis — Criteria — Community measure pursuing a twofold purpose or having a twofold component — Reference to the main or predominant purpose or component — Inseparable purposes — Joint legal basis

2. International agreements — Conclusion — EC/Bulgaria Agreement and EC/Hungary Agreement on the carriage of goods by road and combined transport — Agreements falling principally under transport policy — Predominating over harmonisation of fiscal laws — Legal basis — Article 71 EC in conjunction with Article 300(3) EC — Conclusion on the basis of Article 93 EC — Unlawfulness — (Arts 71, 93 and 300(3) EC; EC/Bulgaria agreement; EC/Hungary Agreement)

3. Actions for annulment — Judgment annulling a measure — Effects — Limitation by the Court — Case of a decision concerning the conclusion of an international agreement — (Art. 231, second para., EC; Council Decisions 2001/265 and 2001/266)

Summary

1. The choice of legal basis for a Community measure must rest on objective factors amenable to judicial review, which include in particular the aim and the content of the measure. If examination of such a measure reveals that it pursues a twofold purpose or that it has a twofold component and if one of these is identifiable as the main or predominant purpose or component whereas the other is merely incidental, the act must be based on a single legal basis, namely that required by the main or predominant purpose or component. By way of exception, if it is established that the measure simultaneously pursues several objectives which are inseparably linked without one being secondary and indirect in relation to the other, the measure must be founded on the corresponding different legal bases.

see paras 38-40

2. Even accepting that the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States achieved through Article 8 of the agreements concluded between the European Community on the one hand and the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Hungary on the other, establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of combined transport, is necessary in order to ensure the establishment and the functioning of the internal market, as required under Article 93 EC if that article is to be taken as the legal basis for a Community measure, in any event the aspect of those agreements which concerns the harmonisation of fiscal laws is, in the light of their aim and their content, only secondary and indirect in nature compared with the transport policy objective which they pursue. The principle of equal treatment in the area of road vehicle taxation and other fiscal charges set out in Article 8(1) and the various fiscal exemptions laid down in Article 8(2) and (4) are closely linked to the simplification of transit through Bulgaria and Hungary for the purpose of facilitating the carriage of goods between Greece and other Member States. Moreover, Article 2 of the agreements, concerning their scope, characterises fiscal measures as " supporting measures" . It follows that the Council should have used Article 71 EC alone, in conjunction with Article 300(3) EC, as the legal basis for the decisions on the conclusion of the agreements.

Since Article 93 EC is referred to as the legal basis for the decisions in question, they must be annulled, since, in principle, the incorrect use of a Treaty article as a legal basis which results in the substitution of unanimity for qualified majority voting in the Council cannot be considered a purely formal defect since a change in voting method may affect the content of the act adopted.

see paras 48-50, 52-53

3. In order to avoid any legal uncertainty as regards the applicability of the international commitments entered into by the Community within the Community ' s legal order, the effects of Decisions 2001/265 and 2001/266 concerning the conclusion of agreements between the European Community on the one hand and the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Hungary on the other, establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of combined transport, must be maintained until the measures necessary to implement the judgment annulling them have been adopted. The content of international agreements cannot be amended unilaterally, without new negotiations being undertaken by the contracting parties.

see paras 55, 57