Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for annulment - Contested measure - Assessment of legality in the light of the information available at the time of adoption of the measure

(EC Treaty, Art. 173 (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC))

2. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Bananas - Import arrangements - Tariff quota - Transitional measures intended to assist the transition to the Community arrangements - Conditions - Obligation incumbent on the Commission to adopt such measures - Burden of proof

(Council Regulation No 404/93, Art. 30)

3. Procedure - Originating application - Procedural requirements - Summary of the pleas in law relied on

(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 44)

Summary

1. In an action for annulment under Article 173 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 230 EC), the legality of a contested measure falls to be assessed on the basis of the elements of fact and of law existing at the time when the measure was adopted. In particular, the complex assessments made by the Commission must be considered in the light only of the evidence available to it at the time when it made them.

( see para. 38 )

2. Article 30 of Regulation No 404/93 on the common organisation of the market in bananas authorises and, depending on the circumstances, requires the Commission to lay down rules catering for cases of hardship arising because importers of third-country bananas or non-traditional ACP bananas meet difficulties threatening their existence, where an exceptionally low quota has been allocated to them on the basis of the reference years to be taken into consideration under Article 19(2) of that regulation, and where those difficulties are inherent in the transition from the national arrangements existing before the entry into force of Regulation No 404/93 to the common organisation of the market and are not caused by a lack of diligence on the part of the importers concerned.

It is clear from the fact that the measures the Commission is empowered to adopt under Article 30 of Regulation No 404/93 are exceptional and by way of derogation from the general rules for the allocation of import licences provided for by that regulation, that it can be required to take such measures only if it is proven on the basis of sufficient evidence, the burden of which falls on the undertaking which requests the adoption of such measures, that all the above conditions are fulfilled.

( see paras 69-70 )

3. Article 44 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance provides that an application must state inter alia a summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based. This means that the application must specify the grounds on which the action is based, with the result that a mere abstract statement of the grounds does not satisfy the requirements of those rules.

Moreover, that summary must be sufficiently clear and precise to enable the defendant to prepare its defence and the Court to decide the case, if appropriate without other information in support. In order to ensure legal certainty and the sound administration of justice, if an action is to be admissible, the essential facts and law on which it is based must be apparent if only in summary, but in a coherent and comprehensible form, from the text of the application itself.

( see paras 90-91 )