The condition for admissibility, namely the requirement that the decision forming the subject-matter of the proceedings must be of direct concern to a natural or legal person, as laid down in the fourth paragraph of Article 263 EC, requires in principle that two cumulative criteria be met, namely, first, the contested measure must directly affect the legal situation of the individual and, second, it must leave no discretion to its addressees, who are entrusted with the task of implementing it, such implementation being purely automatic and resulting from European Union rules without the application of other intermediate rules.

Accordingly a trade union confederation including as members, in essence, all civil servants and employees of legal persons under public law, and the members of that confederation, are not directly affected by the Council decision giving a Member State notice to take measures to remedy a situation of excessive deficit.

The provision of that decision concerning the measures to be taken by a Member State to reduce the excessive deficit, in so far as it places the obligation on the Member State concerned to achieve a budgetary objective, namely saving a certain sum by reducing the bonuses paid to civil servants, without stipulating either the means of making that reduction or the categories of civil servants affected by it, which factors are left to the discretion of the Member State, is not such as to affect directly the legal situation of the applicants since, in the context of its implementation, the Member State authorities have a wide discretion.

Similarly, the provision of the decision requiring the Member State to adopt a law reforming the pension system with a view to ensuring its medium and long-term sustainability, since it needs the adoption of such a law in order to be implemented and leaves a wide discretion to the Member State authorities to define the content of the law, provided that that law ensured the medium and long-term sustainability of the pension system, is not of direct concern to the applicants since only the national measure could, possibly, directly affect their legal situation.

Furthermore, the provision of that decision instituting a ceiling for the replacement of persons leaving the public sector to retire constitutes a general measure of organisation and management of the public administration and does not directly affect the applicants’ legal situation. In so far as that provision brings about a deterioration in the functioning of public services and worsens the applicants’ conditions of employment, it is a situation which does not influence their legal situation, but only their factual situation.

Finally, since the final objective is a reduction in the excessive public deficit of the country, the provisions providing for the adoption by the Member State concerned of a certain number of budgetary consolidation measures, measures seeking to reinforce budgetary monitoring and discipline, and structural measures seeking, inter alia, to improve the competitiveness of the national economy in general, given their range, require national implementing measures which will specify their content. In the context of that implementation, the authorities of the Member State concerned have a wide discretion, provided that the final objective of reducing the excessive deficit is pursued. It is those national measures which, possibly, will directly affect the legal situation of the applicants.

(see paras 64, 70, 72-74, 76, 78, 80, 84)