European Parliament v Council of the European Union.
Date: 1995-07-05
17 It must first of all be borne in mind that due consultation of the Parliament in the cases provided for by the Treaty constitutes an essential formal requirement breach of which renders the measure concerned void (see, for example, the judgment in Case 417/93 Parliament v Council [1995] ECR I-0000, paragraph 9).  The effective participation of the Parliament in the legislative process of the Community, in accordance with the procedures laid down by the Treaty, represents an essential factor in the institutional balance intended by the Treaty.  Such power reflects the fundamental democratic principle that the people should take part in the exercise of power through the intermediary of a representative assembly (see, for example, the judgment in Case C-65/93 Parliament v Council [1995] ECR I-0000, paragraph 21).
18 The duty to consult the European Parliament in the course of the legislative procedure, in the cases provided for by the Treaty, implies the requirement that the Parliament should be reconsulted whenever the text finally adopted, viewed as a whole, departs substantially from the text on which the Parliament has already been consulted, except where the amendments essentially correspond to the wish of the Parliament itself (see, for example, the judgment in Case C-388/92 Parliament v Council [1994] ECR I-2067, paragraph 10, and in Case C-280/93 Germany v Council [1994] ECR I-4973, paragraph 38).
26 Proper consultation of the Parliament in the cases provided for by the Treaty constitutes one of the means enabling it to play an effective role in the legislative process of the Community (see, in particular, the judgment in Case C-316/91 Parliament v Council [1994] ECR I-625, paragraph 17); to accept the Council's argument would result in seriously undermining that essential participation in the maintenance of the institutional balance intended by the Treaty and would amount to disregarding the influence that due consultation of the Parliament can have on adoption of the measure in question.
31 As the Advocate General observed in paragraphs 64 and 65 of his Opinion, the need to avoid discontinuity in the programme for the harmonization of transport taxation and important considerations of legal certainty, comparable with those arising where certain regulations are annulled, justify the Court in exercising the power expressly conferred on it by the second paragraph of Article 174 of the EC Treaty when it annuls a regulation and in stating which of the effects of the contested directive must be preserved (see the judgment in Case C-295/92 Parliament v Council [1992] ECR I-4193, paragraph 26).
32 In the particular circumstances of this case, all the effects of the annulled directive should be preserved provisionally until the Council has adopted a new directive.
33 The request of the Parliament that the Court should impose on the Council a time-limit within which the latter must adopt a new directive cannot be upheld.  The Court does not have jurisdiction to issue such an order in the context of its review of the legality of an act under Article 173 of the Treaty.  The fact none the less remains that the Council is under a duty to put an end within a reasonable period to the infringement it has committed.