Grand Duchy of Luxemburg v European Parliament.
Date: 1991-11-28
15 In order to determine whether an action for the annulment of an act will lie under the first paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty, it must be borne in mind in the first place that, according to the established case-law of the Court, the nature of the act in question must be considered rather than its form and the act must be examined to establish whether it is intended to have legal effects (see the judgment in Case 114/86 United Kingdom v Commission [1988] ECR 5289, at paragraph 12).
16 However, the question whether the Decisions of 1 and 2 June 1988 and of 15 June 1988 relate exclusively to the internal organization of the departments and work of the Parliament and whether they have legal effects in relation to third parties is inseparably associated with consideration of their contents and hence with consideration of the substance of the application. It is therefore necessary to consider the substance of the application in Case C-213/88.
Admissibility of the application in Case C-39/89
24 It should be noted that a determination of the legal effect of the contested resolution is inseparably associated with consideration of its content (see the judgment in Case 230/81 [1983] ECR 255, at paragraph 30).
29 It must be borne in mind first of all that, by virtue of the power to determine its own internal organization conferred on it by Articles 25 of the ECSC Treaty, 142 of the EEC Treaty and 112 of the EAEC Treaty, the Parliament is authorized to take appropriate measures to ensure the proper functioning and conduct of its proceedings. However, under the rule imposing mutual duties of sincere cooperation on the Member States and the Community institutions, as embodied in particular in Article 5 of the EEC Treaty, the decisions of the Parliament must have regard to the powers of the Governments of the Member States to determine the seat of the institutions and the provisional decisions already taken in that regard in the meantime (judgment in Case 230/81, cited above, at paragraph 38).
30 Secondly, it must be remembered that Article 4 of the Decision of 8 April 1965 on the provisional location of certain institutions and departments of the Community (Official Journal 1967 L 152, p. 18) provides that "the General Secretariat of the Assembly and its departments shall remain in Luxembourg". It must also be emphasized that, in the aforesaid judgment, the Court stated that the Parliament must be in a position to maintain in the various places of work outside the place where its Secretariat is established the infrastructure essential for ensuring that it may fulfil in all those places the tasks which are entrusted to it by the Treaties. Within those limits the establishment of such an infrastructure outside the place where the Secretariat is located may therefore be considered compatible with the abovementioned principles governing the respective powers of the Member States and of the Parliament in the matter (judgment in Case 230/81, cited above, at paragraph 54). The Court added, however, that any decision to transfer the Secretariat of the Parliament or the other departments, wholly or partially, de jure or de facto, would constitute a breach of Article 4 of the Decision of 8 April 1965, cited above, and of the assurances which that decision was intended to give to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (judgment in Case 230/81, cited above, at paragraph 55).
34 It should be noted that it is for each institution to determine the methods, ways and means of pursuing its information policy, subject to the limits imposed by Community law. The obligation to provide the public with information concerning the work of an institution is all the more essential in the case of a Parliament elected by direct universal suffrage, which participates in the legislative process on behalf of its electorate.
44 It must be emphasized that meetings at which the committee takes a decision are public, which means that sufficient places must be available for the public and, if necessary, the representatives of the press. A joint sitting of several parliamentary committees also entails the use of a large room. Recourse to such procedures clearly relates to the internal organization of the work of the Parliament and cannot therefore be the subject of judicial review (judgment in Joined Cases 358/85 and 51/86 France v Parliament [1988] ECR 4821, at paragraph 17).
52 It is common ground that the Governments of the Member States have not yet discharged their obligation to determine the final seat of the institutions in accordance with the abovementioned provisions of the Treaties. However, as is also clear from the case-law cited above, that circumstance does not entail any widening of the discretion accorded to the Parliament in the exercise of the power to determine its own internal organization. Accordingly, the Parliament must have regard to the power of the Governments of the Member States to determine the seat of the institutions and to the provisional decisions already taken in that regard in the meantime.
54 As regards the staff working for the committees and delegations, it should be remembered that in its earlier judgments the Court established that the practice of the Parliament to hold meetings of committees and political groups in Brussels had never been called in question by any Member State (judgment in Case 230/81, cited above, at paragraph 48). Therefore the Parliament is justified in taking the view that it is essential to have in Brussels the staff necessary for the holding of those meetings.