Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Decisions taken by private organisations assisting the Commission on a contractual basis in the financial implementation of the MEDIA programme - Decisions imputable to the Commission

(EC Treaty, Art. 173; Council Decision 90/685, Art. 7(1))

2 Actions for annulment - Action directed against letters notifying adjournment of the decision on film distributors' funding applications under the MEDIA programme - Final decisions on the funding applications adopted during the proceedings - Action rendered devoid of purpose - No need to adjudicate

(EC Treaty, Arts 173 and 176)

3 Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Decision rejecting funding applications under the MEDIA programme by the subsidiaries of a film distribution company - Action brought by the parent company - Whether admissible - Action brought by producers of films which were candidates for funding - Whether admissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.)

4 Culture - Community programmes - MEDIA programme - Funding applications for film distribution - Conditions for eligibility - Discretion of the Commission and the organisation assisting it in the financial implementation of the programme

(Council Decision 90/685)

5 Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope

(EC Treaty, Art. 190)

Summary

6 In the context of the implementation of the Action programme to promote the development of the European audiovisual industry (MEDIA), decisions on film distributors' funding applications taken by a private organisation such as the European Film Distribution Office (EFDO), which assists the Commission on a contractual basis in the financial implementation of the programme, are imputable to the Commission and may therefore form the subject-matter of an action before the Community judicature.

In accordance with Article 7(1) of Council Decision 90/685, whereby the Commission is responsible for the implementation of the MEDIA programme, and with the principle that delegation of powers coupled with a freedom to make assessments implying a wide discretionary power is not permissible, the agreement between the Commission and EFDO on the financial implementation of the MEDIA programme makes any decision in that area subject in practice to the prior agreement of the Commission's representatives.

7 An action directed against letters in which the organisation assisting the Commission in the financial implementation of the MEDIA programme stated that it was adjourning the decision on film distributors' funding applications under that programme becomes devoid of purpose, so that there is no longer any need for the Court of First Instance to adjudicate thereon, where final decisions on the funding applications, which would be the only measures capable of being adopted in implementation of the Court's judgment, are taken after the action was brought.

8 A decision by the organisation assisting the Commission in the financial implementation of the MEDIA programme rejecting funding applications by the subsidiaries of a film distribution company, although addressed only to those subsidiaries, directly and individually concerns the parent company where the latter has obtained exhibition rights for the films concerned and then transferred them to its subsidiaries and has, moreover, passed on its subsidiaries' funding applications to that organisation, on behalf of those subsidiaries.

Similarly, the producers of films which are candidates for financing from that organisation are directly and individually concerned in a similar way to the addressees of such a decision, since a loan from that organisation brings forward the point at which distribution costs are recouped and thus the point at which the producer receives a royalty.

9 Having regard to the requirements and aims of the MEDIA programme, governed by Council Decision 90/685, and the guidelines of the organisation assisting the Commission in the financial implementation of the programme, the Commission and that organisation are entitled to require that, for funding applications in respect of the distribution of films to satisfy the eligibility condition under those guidelines whereby `at least three different distributors from at least three different EU countries or from countries with which cooperation contracts exist must agree to exhibit a film theatrically in their countries', such applications must be submitted by at least three distributors who have not previously cooperated in a substantial and permanent manner.

In that respect, the cooperation and the distribution network created solely by the subsidiaries of one film distribution company, without the participation of other companies, do not correspond to the forms of cooperation envisaged by Council Decision 90/685 by reason of the structure and the limited independence of those subsidiaries, which for the purposes of examining the eligibility of funding applications are to be regarded as a single distributor.

It is, moreover, possible that, even though eligible, funding applications by the subsidiaries of a film distribution company may be rejected on the ground that the legal position of that company and its subsidiaries remains uncertain for as long as the Commission has not decided whether to renew an exemption granted to the parent company under Article 85(3) of the Treaty, provided that such a rejection fulfils the requirements of Decision 90/685 and accords fully with the aims of the MEDIA programme.

10 The statement of reasons for a measure adopted by a Community authority must disclose in a clear and unequivocal fashion the reasoning followed by that authority in such a way as to make the persons concerned aware of the reasons for the measure and thus enable them to defend their rights and the Community judicature to exercise its power of review. The question whether the statement of reasons for such a measure meets the requirements of Article 190 of the Treaty must be assessed with regard not only to its wording but also to its context and to all the legal rules governing the matter in question.