Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Actions for annulment of measures ° Parliament' s right of action ° Conditions of admissibility ° Defence of its prerogatives ° Participation in the legislative process ° Action based on inadequacy of the statement of reasons for the contested measure ° Inadmissible ° Prejudice caused by the amendment by the Commission of an act adopted by the Council on the basis of a provision of the Treaty requiring the Parliament to be consulted ° Admissible

(EEC Treaty, Arts 173 and 190)

2. Agriculture ° Common agricultural policy ° Regulations ° Procedure for drawing up ° Distinction between basic regulations and implementing regulations ° Implementing regulation adopted without consulting the Parliament ° Mandatory rules to be complied with in the case of a regulation adopted without consulting the Parliament in order to ensure implementation of a basic regulation providing for such consultation ° Commission Regulation No 207/93 ° Provisions going beyond the framework for the implementation of the principles laid down by Council Regulation No 2092/91 ° None

(EEC Treaty, Art. 43(2), third subpara.; Council Regulation No 2092/91; Commission Regulation No 207/93; Council Directives 90/219 and 90/220)

3. Actions for annulment of measures ° Grounds ° Misuse of powers ° Concept ° Commission Regulation No 207/93 ° Legality

(Council Regulation No 2092/91: Commission Regulation No 207/93; Council Directive 90/220)

Summary

1. An action for annulment brought before the Court by the Parliament against an act of the Council or the Commission is admissible provided that the action seeks only to safeguard its prerogatives and that it is founded only on submissions alleging their infringement. That condition is satisfied where the Parliament indicates in an appropriate manner the substance of the prerogative to be safeguarded and how that prerogative is allegedly infringed.

Applying those criteria, an action must be declared inadmissible in so far as it is founded on infringement of Article 190 of the Treaty. In alleging that the contested provisions are inadequately reasoned for the purposes of that article, the Parliament has failed to indicate in an appropriate manner how that infringement is such as to impair its own prerogatives.

On the other hand, the right to be consulted in accordance with a provision of the Treaty is a prerogative of the Parliament; consequently, where the Commission exceeds its powers in seeking to regulate matters falling within the ambit of a basic regulation of the Council by means of provisions implementing that basic regulation, which is itself based on an article of the Treaty requiring the Parliament to be consulted, it is liable to breach that prerogative, since it is in effect excluding the Parliament from the normal procedure for regulating such matters.

2. The Council cannot be required to draw up all the details of the regulations concerning the common agricultural policy according to the procedure laid down in Article 43 of the Treaty. It is sufficient for the purposes of that provision that the essential elements of the matter to be dealt with have been adopted in accordance with that procedure; by contrast, the provisions implementing the basic regulations may be adopted according to a procedure other than that laid down by Article 43. Nevertheless, an implementing regulation adopted without consultation of the Parliament must respect the essential elements which were laid down in the basic regulation following such consultation.

Commission Regulation No 207/93, defining inter alia the content of Annex VI to Council Regulation No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs, does not go beyond the framework for the implementation of the principles laid down by the latter regulation by including amongst the preparations used in the processing of foodstuffs ° provided that they have been included in accordance with the management committee procedure ° genetically modified micro-organisms as defined by Directive 90/220 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms.

The effect of the reference to those micro-organisms, which can only be included in the annex by the procedure prescribed for that purpose, is not to lay down new rules permitting the use of those substances in organic farming. Such use is subject to both compliance with the procedures laid down by Directive 90/219 on the contained use of the micro-organisms in question and the abovementioned Directive 90/220 and the effective inclusion of those substances in the exhaustive lists contained in Annex VI.

3. An act of a Community institution is vitiated by misuse of powers if it is adopted with the exclusive or main purpose of achieving an end other than that stated or evading a procedure specifically prescribed by the Treaty for dealing with the circumstances of the case. Commission Regulation No 207/93 defining inter alia the content of Annex VI to Council Regulation No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs is not vitiated in that way by the fact that it includes, within that annex, genetically modified micro-organisms as defined by Directive 90/220. There is nothing to suggest that the Commission adopted the provisions at issue for a purpose other than that stated in the preamble to the regulation containing them, and, since the Commission has not amended the legislation arising from the basic regulation, it was not obliged to follow the special procedure laid down for that purpose.