French Republic v European Parliament.
Date: 2018-10-02
15


The Court observes in that regard that the Parliament, by placing the debate and vote on the joint text on the annual budget of the EU for the financial year 2017 on the agendas for the plenary sittings of 30 November and 1 December 2016, decided to exercise its budgetary powers under Article 314(6) TFEU during an additional plenary part-session in Brussels. The question whether those two agendas are concerned exclusively with the Parliament’s internal organisation or whether they have legal effects vis-à-vis third parties, such effects arising as a result of the Parliament’s exercise of its powers, is inseparably associated with consideration of the content of those agendas and, consequently, with consideration of the substance of the actions, meaning that that question cannot be examined in the context of the admissibility of the action (see, to that effect, judgments of 10 February 1983, Luxembourg v Parliament, 230/81, EU:C:1983:32, paragraph 30; of 28 November 1991, Luxembourg v Parliament, C‑213/88 and C‑39/89, EU:C:1991:449, paragraph 16; and of 13 December 2012, France v Parliament, C‑237/11 and C‑238/11, EU:C:2012:796, paragraph 20).
16


So far as the Parliament’s legislative resolution of 1 December 2016 is concerned, the Court has already held that the Parliament’s debate and vote on the draft annual budget at second reading on the basis of Article 203(6) of the EEC Treaty could form the subject matter of an action for annulment. Under paragraph 10 of that Article (subsequently Article 203(10) of the EC Treaty, which then became Article 272(10) EC and is and now Article 314(10 TFEU), each institution is to exercise the powers conferred upon it in budgetary matters in compliance with the Treaties. If it were not possible to refer the various acts adopted by the budgetary authority under that Article for review by the Court, the institutions of which that authority is composed could encroach upon the powers of the Member States or of the other institutions or exceed the limits which have been set to their own powers (see, to that effect, judgment of 3 July 1986, Council v Parliament, 34/86, EU:C:1986:291, paragraph 12). Those considerations apply, mutatis mutandis, with regard to the Parliament’s legislative resolution of 1 December 2016 approving the joint text on the draft annual budget of the EU for the financial year 2017 at second reading on the basis of Article 314(6) TFEU.
32


In the absence of any specific provision in point (a) of the sole article of that protocol, the words ‘budget session’ must be considered to refer to all the periods of plenary part-session during which the Parliament exercises its budgetary powers and to all the acts adopted by the Parliament for that purpose.
33


As regards Article 1(a) of the Edinburgh Decision, which is worded in identical terms to point (a) of the sole article of the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions, the Court has already held that that provision defines the seat of the Parliament as the place where 12 ordinary plenary part-sessions must take place on a regular basis, including those during which the Parliament is to exercise the budgetary powers conferred upon it by the Treaty (see, to that effect, judgments of 1 October 1997, France v Parliament, C‑345/95, EU:C:1997:450, paragraph 29, and of 13 December 2012, France v Parliament, C‑237/11 and C‑238/11, EU:C:2012:796, paragraph 40).
35


According to the Court’s case-law, the exercise by the Parliament of its budgetary powers in plenary sitting constitutes a fundamental event in the democratic life of the European Union and requires, inter alia, a public debate in plenary sitting enabling the citizens of the European Union to acquaint themselves with the various political orientations expressed and, as a result, to form a political opinion on the European Union’s actions (judgment of 13 December 2012, France v Parliament, C‑237/11 and C‑238/11, EU:C:2012:796, paragraph 68). Furthermore, the transparency afforded by a parliamentary debate in a plenary sitting is likely to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the budgetary procedure in the eyes of citizens of the European Union and the credibility of the latter’s actions.
37


Accordingly, the words ‘budget session’ in point (a) of the sole article of the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions encompass not only the ordinary plenary part-session during which the draft budget is considered at first reading, but also the second reading, under Article 314(6) TFEU, which guarantees a public debate and vote, in a plenary sitting, on the joint text on the draft annual budget adopted in the conciliation procedure.
38


In the second place, the Parliament is obliged to comply with the requirements that Article 314 TFEU imposes on it for the exercise of its budgetary powers in plenary sitting. The purpose of the deadlines and time limits laid down in that provision is to ensure that the annual budget of the EU is adopted by the end of the year preceding the financial year in question, as a possible failure to observe them can result in the application of Article 315 TFEU concerning a provisional budget.
40


Moreover, if, within the 14-day period laid down in Article 314(6) TFEU, there has been no debate and vote in the Parliament on the joint text on the draft annual budget, the joint text may be adopted by the Council alone, under the conditions laid down in paragraph 7(a) of that article. As has been stated in paragraphs 34 to 36 of this judgment, it is of particular importance for the transparency and democratic legitimacy of action taken by the European Union, which are given expression through the procedure for adopting the annual budget, that the Parliament should exercise its powers under Article 314(6) TFEU and take a decision in plenary sitting on that joint text.
41


The Parliament is therefore required to act in this area with all the attention, rigour and commitment which such a responsibility demands (see, to that effect, judgment of 13 December 2012, France v Parliament, C‑237/11 and C‑238/11, EU:C:2012:796, paragraph 68), which presupposes that the parliamentary debate and vote be based on a text that has been made available to the Members in good time and been translated into all the official EU languages. The European Union is committed to multilingualism, the importance of which is stated in the fourth subparagraph of Article 3(3) TEU (see, to that effect, judgment of 5 May 2015, Spain v Council, C‑147/13, EU:C:2015:299, paragraph 42, and of 6 September 2017, Slovakia and Hungary v Council, C‑643/15 and C‑647/15, EU:C:2017:631, paragraph 203).
42


In the third place, given that point (a) of the sole article of the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions and Article 314 TFEU have the same legal value, the obligations arising under the sole article of the protocol cannot, as such, prevail over those arising under Article 314 TFEU, and vice versa. Their application must be on a case-by-case basis and in a manner that reconciles those obligations and strikes a fair balance between them.
43


Moreover, it is settled case-law that the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions is predicated on mutual respect on the part of the Member States and the Parliament for each other’s areas of competence and on a reciprocal duty of sincere cooperation (see, to that effect, judgments of 22 September 1988, France v Parliament, 358/85 and 51/86, EU:C:1988:431, paragraphs 34 and 35; of 1 October 1997, France v Parliament, C‑345/95, EU:C:1997:450, paragraphs 31 and 32; and of 13 December 2012, France v Parliament, C‑237/11 and C‑238/11, EU:C:2012:796, paragraphs 41, 42 and 60).
44


Thus, the Parliament is obliged to exercise its budgetary powers in an ordinary plenary part-session in Strasbourg, although that obligation, arising under point (a) of the sole article of the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions, does not preclude the annual budget from being debated and voted on during an additional plenary part-session in Brussels, if that is called for by essential requirements relating to the proper conduct of the budgetary procedure that is laid down in Article 314 TFEU. If that procedure were conducted in such a way as to give absolute precedence to observance of point (a) of the sole article of the protocol to the detriment of Parliament’s full participation in the budgetary procedure, that would be incompatible with the need to reconcile the obligations arising under those provisions, to which reference has been made in paragraph 42 of this judgment.
45


As regards judicial review of compliance with the requirements stemming from paragraphs 42 to 44 of this judgment, it must be stated that when the Parliament undertakes the necessary reconciliation between the obligations under point (a) of the sole article of the Protocol concerning the seats of the institutions and those under Article 314 TFEU, it has a discretion deriving from the essential requirements relating to the proper conduct of the budgetary procedure. That judicial review therefore concerns the question whether the Parliament made errors of assessment by opting to exercise some of its budgetary powers in the course of an additional plenary part-session.
50


Indeed, the premiss set out in paragraph 48 of this judgment cannot be accepted. Thus, at the time when the calendar of ordinary plenary part-sessions was adopted, it was fundamentally uncertain whether there would be a conciliation procedure and equally uncertain when that procedure would begin and, in the event of agreement on a joint text on the draft annual budget, when it would end. As the French Republic accepts, it could not therefore be ruled out at that time that, if the Conciliation Committee were convened, it would reach agreement on a joint text on the draft annual budget of the EU before 17 November 2016: that would have allowed the Parliament to hold a debate and to vote on the joint text at second reading during the ordinary plenary part-session of 21 to 24 November 2016 –– and to do so without failing to comply with the requirement to act with attention, rigour and commitment referred to in paragraph 41 of this judgment.
63


That act is in fact closely linked to the vote, at second reading, on the joint text on the annual budget. The act of the President of the Parliament formally declaring, after verification that the procedure has been conducted lawfully, that the annual budget of the EU has been definitively adopted constitutes the final stage of the procedure for the adoption of that budget and endows it with binding force (see, to that effect, judgment of 17 September 2013, Council v Parliament, C‑77/11, EU:C:2013:559, paragraph 50). Thus, when the Parliament, in the light of the necessary reconciliation of obligations to which reference has been made in paragraph 42 of this judgment, is entitled to debate and vote on the joint text on the annual budget during an additional plenary part-session in Brussels, the President of the Parliament makes that declaration during the same plenary part-session.