European Parliament v Council of the European Communities.
Date: 1992-07-16
11 In support of that objection, the Council relied first on the principles contained in the "Comitology" judgment in Case 302/87 Parliament v Council [1988] ECR 5615. Subsequently, it took note of the interlocutory judgment in Case C-70/88 Parliament v Council [1990] ECR I-2041, the "post-Chernobyl regulation" judgment and, in its supplementary observations lodged with the leave of the Court and in oral argument at the hearing, it put forward arguments based thereon.
12 According to the Council, the judgment in Case C-70/88 shows that the Parliament' s right of action under Article 173 of the Treaty may be exercised only exceptionally in cases where the balance of the Treaty system risks being disturbed or there is a substantial infringement of the Parliament' s basic prerogatives. Those criteria are not satisfied in the present case because the action does not challenge the legal basis of the contested measure; moreover, it concerns not the cooperation procedure but merely the procedure for consulting the Parliament.
13 It is sufficient in that respect to recall that, as the Court held in Case C-70/88, an action for annulment brought 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 (paragraph 27), and that the Parliament' s prerogatives include, in particular, participation in the drafting of legislative measures (paragraph 28).
14 On the basis of those criteria, the action must be declared admissible. The Parliament alleges infringement of its prerogatives, inasmuch as the failure to consult it a second time during the procedure leading to the adoption of the contested regulation meant that it was not duly associated with the drafting of a legislative measure whose adoption, pursuant to Article 75 of the Treaty, is subject to the requirement that there should be prior consultation of the Parliament. Due consultation of the Parliament in the cases provided for by the Treaty is one of the means enabling the Parliament to participate effectively in the Community' s legislative procedure (see the so-called "Isoglucose" judgments in Case 138/79 Roquette Frères v Council [1980] ECR 3333, paragraph 33, and Case 139/79 Maizena v Council [1980] ECR 3393, paragraph 34).
16 The case-law of the Court indicates that the duty to consult the European Parliament in the course of the legislative procedure, in the cases provided for by the Treaty, includes the requirement that the Parliament be reconsulted on each occasion when the text finally adopted, viewed as a whole, departs substantially from the text on which the Parliament has already been consulted, except in cases where the amendments essentially correspond to the wishes of the Parliament itself (see the judgments in Case 41/69 Chemiefarma v Commission [1970] ECR 661 and Case 817/79 Buyl v Commission [1982] ECR 245).
23 In the interest of legal certainty and in order to maintain continuity in the Community system of cabotage it is appropriate to apply the second paragraph of Article 174 of the Treaty, according to which the Court may state which of the effects of an annulled regulation are to be considered definitive.