Hellenic Republic v Council of the European Communities.
Date: 1990-03-29
8 Pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 173 of the EEC Treaty "the Court of Justice shall review the legality of acts of the Council and the Commission other than recommendations or opinions . It shall for this purpose have jurisdiction in actions brought ... on grounds of ... infringement of this Treaty or of any rule of law relating to its application ...". The need for a complete and consistent review of legality requires that provision to be construed as not depriving the Court of jurisdiction to consider, in proceedings for the annulment of a measure based on a provision of the EEC Treaty, a submission concerning the infringement of a rule of the EAEC or ECSC Treaties .
13 The Court held in its judgment of 26 March 1987 in Case 45/86 Commission v Council (( 1987 )) ECR 1493, paragraph 11, that in the context of the organization of the powers of the Community the choice of the legal basis for a measure must be based on objective factors which are amenable to judicial review .
17 Recourse to Article 113 as the legal basis for the contested regulation cannot be excluded on the ground that Article 30 et seq . of the EAEC Treaty lay down specific rules governing the basic standards for protection of the health of the general public against the dangers arising from ionizing radiation . Those provisions, which appear in a chapter entitled "Health and Safety", which forms part of the second title of the EAEC Treaty entitled "Provisions for the encouragement of progress in the field of nuclear energy", are intended to provide for the protection of public health in the nuclear sector . They are not intended to regulate trade between the Community and non-member countries .
18 The fact that maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination are fixed in response to a concern to protect public health and that the protection of public health is also one of the objectives of Community action in environmental matters, in accordance with the Article 130r(1 ), likewise cannot remove Regulation No 3955/87 from the sphere of the common commercial policy .
19 Articles 130r and 130s are intended to confer powers on the Community to undertake specific action on environmental matters . However, those articles leave intact the powers held by the Community under other provisions of the Treaty, even if the measures to be taken under the latter provisions pursue at the same time any of the objectives of environmental protection .
20 Moreover, that interpretation is confirmed by the second sentence of Article 130r(2 ), pursuant to which "environmental protection requirements shall be a component of the Community' s other policies ". That provision, which reflects the principle whereby all Community measures must satisfy the requirements of environmental protection, implies that a Community measure cannot be part of Community action on environmental matters merely because it takes account of those requirements .
21 As regards the Greek Government' s reference to the need to base Regulation No 3955/87 also on Article 235, it need merely be stated that, as the Court has held, use of that article as the legal basis for a measure is justified only where no other provision of the Treaty gives the Community institutions the necessary power to adopt the measure in question ( see most recently the judgment of 30 May 1989 in Case 242/87 Commission v Council (( 1989 )) ECR 1425, paragraph 6 ).