Commission of the European Communities v Jégo-Quéré & Cie SA.
Date: 2004-04-01
29. It should be noted that individuals are entitled to effective judicial protection of the rights they derive from the Community legal order, and the right to such protection is one of the general principles of law stemming from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States. That right has also been enshrined in Articles 6 and 13 of the ECHR (see, in particular, Case 222/84 Johnston [1986] ECR 1651, paragraph 18, and Case C-50/00 P Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council [2002] ECR I-6677, paragraph 39).
30. By Articles 230 EC and Article 241 EC, on the one hand, and by Article 234, on the other, the Treaty has established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to ensure review of the legality of acts of the institutions, and has entrusted such review to the Community Courts. Under that system, where natural or legal persons cannot, by reason of the conditions for admissibility laid down in the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, directly challenge Community measures of general application, they are able, depending on the case, either indirectly to plead the invalidity of such acts before the Community Courts under Article 241 EC or to do so before the national courts and ask them, since they have no jurisdiction themselves to declare those measures invalid, to make a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on validity (see Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council , paragraph 40).
31. Thus it is for the Member States to establish a system of legal remedies and procedures which ensure respect for the right to effective judicial protection (see Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council , paragraph 41).
32. In that context, in accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in Article 10 EC, national courts are required, so far as possible, to interpret and apply national procedural rules governing the exercise of rights of action in a way that enables natural and legal persons to challenge before the courts the legality of any decision or other national measure relative to the application to them of a Community act of general application, by pleading the invalidity of such an act (see Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council , paragraph 42).
33. However, it is not appropriate for an action for annulment before the Community Court to be available to an individual who contests the validity of a measure of general application, such as a regulation, which does not distinguish him individually in the same way as an addressee, even if it could be shown, following an examination by that Court of the particular national procedural rules, that those rules do not allow the individual to bring proceedings to contest the validity of the Community measure at issue. Such an interpretation would require the Community Court, in each individual case, to examine and interpret national procedural law. That would go beyond its jurisdiction when reviewing the legality of Community measures (see Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council , paragraphs 37 and 43).
36. Although the condition that a natural or legal person can bring an action challenging a regulation only if he is concerned both directly and individually must be interpreted in the light of the principle of effective judicial protection by taking account of the various circumstances that may distinguish an applicant individually, such an interpretation cannot have the effect of setting aside the condition in question, expressly laid down in the Treaty. The Community Courts would otherwise go beyond the jurisdiction conferred by the Treaty (see Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council , paragraph 44).
44. However, the Court has consistently held that the fact that a measure is of general application does not mean that it cannot be of direct and individual concern to certain economic operators (see, inter alia, Case C-142/00 P Commission v Netherlands Antilles  [2003] ECR I-3484, paragraph 64).
47. Furthermore, no provision of Community law required the Commission, when adopting Regulation No 1162/2001, to follow a procedure under which Jégo‑Quére would be entitled to claim rights that might be available to it, including the right to be heard. Community law has accordingly not conferred any particular legal status on an operator such as Jégo-Quéré with regard to the adoption of Regulation No 1162/2001 (see, to that effect, Case 191/82 FEDIOL v Commission [1983] ECR 2913, paragraph 31).