Coöperatieve Vereniging De Verenigde Bloemenveilingen Aalsmeer BA (VBA) v Florimex BV and Vereniging van Groothandelaren in Bloemkwekerijproducten (VGB).
Date: 2000-03-30
93 So far as concerns those four grounds of appeal, which it is appropriate to examine together, the Court points out, first, that it is settled case-law that the statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the EC Treaty (now Article 253 EC) must be appropriate to the act at issue and must disclose in a clear and unequivocal fashion the reasoning followed by the institution which adopted the measure in question in such a way as to enable the persons concerned to ascertain the reasons for the measure and to enable the competent Community Court to exercise its power of review. The requirement to state reasons must be evaluated according to the circumstances of each case, in particular the content of the measure in question, the nature of the reasons given and the interest which the addressees of the measure, or other parties to whom it is of direct and individual concern, may have in obtaining explanations. It is not necessary for the reasoning to go into all the relevant facts and points of law, since the question whether the statement of reasons 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 (see, in particular, Case C-367/95 P Commission v Sytraval and Brink's France [1998] ECR I-1719, paragraph 63).
104 If the provisions in the statutes of a cooperative governing relations between itself and its members do not automatically escape the prohibition laid down in Article 85(1) of the Treaty (Oude Luttikhuis, cited above, paragraph 13), the same must be true a fortiori of provisions which produce effects vis-à-vis third parties which have not subscribed to them.
114 In that connection, it must be remembered that infringement of Article 190 of the Treaty and manifest error of assessment are two distinct pleas, each of which may be raised in proceedings under Article 173 of the Treaty. The first, alleging absence of reasons or inadequacy of the reasons stated, goes to an issue of infringement of essential procedural requirements within the meaning of that article and, involving a matter of public policy, must be raised by the Community judicature of its own motion. By contrast, the second, which goes to the substantive legality of the contested decision, is concerned with infringement of a rule of law relating to the application of the Treaty within the meaning of Article 173 itself, and can be examined by the Community judicature only if it is raised by the applicant (see Commission v Sytraval and Brink's France, cited above, paragraph 67).
115 It is clear from the contested judgment that the Court of First Instance did in fact criticise the Commission for having committed a manifest error of assessment. Thus, it did not draw the necessary distinction between the requirement to state reasons and the substantive legality of the contested decision.
121 It should be borne in mind that it is settled case-law that if the grounds of a judgment of the Court of First Instance reveal an infringement of Community law but the operative part appears well founded on other legal grounds, the appeal must be dismissed (see Case C-30/91 P Lestelle v Commission [1992] ECR I-3755, paragraph 28, and Case C-294/95 P Ojha v Commission [1996] ECR I-5863, paragraph 52).
138 Under Articles 168a of the EC Treaty (now Article 225 EC), and 51 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice, however, an appeal may be based only on grounds relating to the infringement of rules of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of the facts (see, in particular, Case C-8/95 P New Holland Ford v Commission [1998] ECR I-3175, paragraph 25).
139 The Court of First Instance alone has jurisdiction, first, to make a finding as to the facts, save where the substantive inaccuracy of such findings is apparent from the documents submitted to it and, second, to assess those facts (New Holland Ford v Commission, cited above, paragraph 25). Furthermore, such inaccuracy must be obvious from the documents before the Court without its being necessary to undertake a fresh assessment of the facts (New Holland Ford v Commission, cited above, paragraph 72).
140 In the present case, the arguments put forward in support of the view that the trade agreements provided for specific supply obligations, arguments which moreover are essentially identical to those submitted before the Court of First Instance, do not reveal the existence of a manifest substantive error in the findings of fact made by the Court of First Instance in that connection.
141 It is, however, true that the Court of First Instance considered that the contested decision did not contain a sufficient statement of reasons to enable it to verify the merits of the Commission's finding that the difference of treatment between the two groups of suppliers concerned was objectively justified, while at the same time it criticised the Commission for having committed an error of assessment on that point.
142 None the less, on the same grounds as those set out in paragraphs 115 to 119 of the present judgment, that error in law remains irrelevant to the outcome of the case.