Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for damages - Subject-matter - Request for compensation for damage attributable to the Community - Exclusive jurisdiction of the Community judicature

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

2. Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Infringement of a rule of law intended to confer rights on individuals - Not possible to rely on the GATT rules to contest the lawfulness of a Community act or as grounds for an action for damages - Exceptions - Community measure intended to implement a GATT rule or expressly and specifically referring thereto

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

3. Agriculture - Common organisation of markets - Bananas - Import arrangements - Tariff quota - Opening and allocation of the quota - Allocation of import licences - Determination of the reference period - Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations - Infringement - None

(Council Regulation No 404/93, Art. 20(d), as amended by Regulation No 1637/98)

4. Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Unlawfulness - Inadequacy of the statement of reasons on which a measure contained in a regulation is based - Not sufficient

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

Summary

1. Where, in the context of an action for damages, the unlawful conduct is not that of a national body but that of a Community institution, any loss arising from the implementation of the Community legislation by the national authorities is attributable to the Community. Since the Community judicature has exclusive jurisdiction under Article 215 of the Treaty (now Article 288 EC) to hear actions seeking compensation for such damage, remedies available under national law cannot ensure effective protection of the rights of individuals aggrieved by measures of Community institutions.

( see paras 26-27 )

2. In the context of the Community's non-contractual liability, a right to reparation arises only where the rule of law infringed is intended to confer rights on individuals. That is not the case for the WTO agreements. Given their nature and structure, those agreements are not in principle among the rules in the light of which the Community judicature is to review the legality of measures adopted by the Community institutions. It is only where the Community intends to implement a particular obligation assumed in the context of the WTO, or where the Community measure refers expressly to the precise provisions of the agreements contained in the annexes to the WTO Agreement, that it is for the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance to review the legality of the Community measure in question in the light of the WTO rules.

( see paras 45-46, 50-51, 58 )

3. Determination of the reference period to be taken into account in allocating import licences for bananas to economic operators is dependent on the choice of methods needed in order to carry out the policy of the Community institutions with regard to the common organisation of the banana markets. Those institutions have a discretion in that matter. Therefore, economic operators cannot entertain a legitimate expectation that the relative timing of the reference period taken into account for the purposes of issuing import licences, as provided for in the original version of Regulation No 404/93 on the common organisation of the market in bananas, will be maintained. In addition, the temporary difficulties which can arise during the reform of a market organisation may in principle be settled on an individual basis by applying the arrangements for hardship cases provided for in Article 20(d) of Regulation No 404/93, as amended by Regulation No 1637/98, even if that requires a detailed examination of all the circumstances of the operator concerned.

( see paras 76, 78 )

4. So far as concerns a complaint relating purely to form, a possible inadequacy in the statement of the reasons on which a measure contained in a regulation is based is not sufficient to render the Community liable.

( see para. 79 )