Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Applications for interim measures - Conditions of admissibility - Application - Requirements as to form - Summary of the pleas establishing a prima facie case for the measures applied for

(Art. 242 EC; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2) and (3))

2. Applications for interim measures - Conditions of admissibility - Admissibility of the main action - Immaterial - Limits

(Art. 242 EC; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(1), first para.)

3. Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Acts of the Parliament intended to produce legal effects vis-à-vis third parties - Definition - Acts affecting only the internal organisation of the Parliament - Excluded

(Art. 230 EC)

Summary

1. It follows from Article 104(2) and (3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance that an application for interim measures must be sufficient to enable the defendant to submit its observations and the judge hearing the application to rule on that application, where necessary, without other supporting information. For the purposes of legal certainty and the proper administration of justice, it is necessary, for such an application to be admissible, that the essential elements of fact and law on which it is founded be set out in a coherent and comprehensible fashion in the application for interim measures itself. While the application may be supported and supplemented on specific points by references to certain passages in documents annexed thereto, an overall reference to other written documentation, even those annexed to the application for interim measures, cannot make up for the absence of essential elements in that application.

In that connection, the reference to the pleas and arguments in the application for annulment, even though that application is attached to the application for interim measures, cannot make up for the absence of any explanation in that application of the grounds in the action in the main proceedings which make out a prima facie case for the interim measures sought.

( see paras 34, 36 )

2. The admissibility of an action before the court adjudicating on the substance should not, in principle, be examined in proceedings relating to an application for interim measures so as not to prejudge the case in the main proceedings. However, where, as in this case, it is contended that the main action from which the application for interim measures is derived is manifestly inadmissible, it may be necessary to establish certain grounds for the conclusion that such an action is prima facie admissible.

( see para. 42 )

3. The first paragraph of Article 230 EC, which provides that the Court is to review, in particular, the legality of acts of the Parliament intended to produce legal effects vis-à-vis third parties, is aimed at enabling the Community courts to review the acts adopted by the Parliament in the context of the EC Treaty which could encroach on the powers of the Member States or the other institutions, or exceed the limits which have been set to the Parliament's powers. On the other hand, acts concerned only with the internal organisation of the Parliament's work cannot be the subject of an application for annulment. That class of measures includes measures of the Parliament which either do not have legal effects or have legal effects only within the Parliament as regards the organisation of its work and are subject to review procedures laid down in its Rules of Procedure.

In that regard, prima facie the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission has not altered the legal position of Members of Parliament, acting individually, as regards their right under the third paragraph of Article 197 EC, does not impair that right, which is guaranteed by that provision, and therefore has no legal effect vis-à-vis Members of the Parliament acting individually.

( see paras 43, 51 )