Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council of the European Union.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Writing for the Court: Gulmann
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2002:462
• Docket Number: C-50/00
• Date: 25 July 2002
• Procedure Type: Recurso de anulación

Avis juridique important

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62000J0050

Judgment of the Court of 25 July 2002. - Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council of the European Union. - Appeal - Regulation (EC) No 1638/98 - Common organisation of the market in oils and fats - Action for annulment - Person individually concerned - Effective judicial protection - Admissibility. - Case C-50/00 P.

European Court reports 2002 Page I-06677

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

1. Community law - Principles - Right to effective judicial protection - Enshrinement in the European Convention on Human Rights

2. European Communities - Judicial review of the legality of acts of the institutions - Acts of general application - Need for natural or legal persons to have recourse to a plea of illegality or a reference for a preliminary ruling on validity - Obligation for national courts to apply national procedural rules in a way that enables the legality of Community acts of general application to be challenged - Availability of an action for annulment before the Community Court in the event of an insurmountable obstacle at the level of national procedural rules - Excluded

(EC Treaty, Arts 5, 177 and 184 (now Arts 10 EC, 234 EC and 241 EC) and Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC, fourth para))

3. Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Interpretation contra legem of the requirement of being individually concerned - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC, fourth para); Art. 48 EU)

Summary

$$1. The European Community is a community based on the rule of law in which its institutions are subject to judicial review of the compatibility of their acts with the Treaty and with the general principles of law which include fundamental rights.

Individuals are therefore entitled to effective judicial protection of the rights they derive from the Community legal order, and the right to such protection is one of the general principles of law stemming from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States. That right has also been enshrined in Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

( see paras 38-39 )

2. By Article 173 (now, after amendment, Article 230 EC) and Article 184 (now Article 241 EC), on the one hand, and by Article 177 (now Article 234 EC), on the other, the Treaty has established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to ensure judicial review of the legality of acts of the institutions, and has entrusted such review to the Community Courts. Under that system, where natural or legal persons cannot, by reason of the conditions for admissibility laid down in the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty, directly challenge Community measures of general application, they are able, depending on the case, either indirectly to plead the invalidity of such acts before the Community Courts under Article 184 of the Treaty or to do so before the national courts and ask them, since they have no jurisdiction themselves to declare those measures invalid, to make a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on validity.

Thus it is for the Member States to establish a system of legal remedies and procedures which ensure respect for the right to effective judicial protection.

In that context, in accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty (now Article 10 EC), national courts are required, so far as possible, to interpret and apply national procedural rules governing the exercise of rights of action in a way that enables natural and legal persons to challenge before the courts the legality of any decision or other national measure relative to the application to them of a Community act of general application, by pleading the invalidity of such an act.

It is not acceptable to adopt an interpretation of the system of remedies to the effect that a direct action for annulment before the Community Court will be available where it can be shown, following an examination by that Court of the particular national procedural rules, that those rules do not allow the individual to bring proceedings to contest the validity of the Community measure at issue. Such an interpretation would require the Community Court, in each individual case, to examine and interpret national procedural law. That would go beyond its jurisdiction when reviewing the legality of Community measures.

( see paras 40-43 )

3. According to the system for judicial review of the legality of Community measures of general application which was established by the Treaty, a natural or legal person can bring an action challenging a regulation only if it is concerned both directly and individually. Although this last condition must be interpreted in the light of the principle of effective judicial protection by taking account of the various circumstances that may distinguish an applicant individually, such an interpretation cannot have the effect of setting aside the condition in question, expressly laid down in the Treaty, without going beyond the jurisdiction conferred by the Treaty on the Community Courts.

While it is, admittedly, possible to envisage a system of judicial review of the legality of Community measures of general application different from that established by the founding Treaty and never amended as to its principles, it is for the Member States, if necessary, in accordance with Article 48 EU, to reform the system currently in force.

( see paras 44-45 )

Parties

In Case C-50/00 P,

Unión de Pequeños Agricultores, having its registered office in Madrid (Spain), represented by J. Ledesma Bartret and J. Jiménez Laiglesia y de Oñate, Abogados, with an address for service in Luxembourg,

appellant,

APPEAL against the order of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (Third Chamber) of 23 November 1999 in Case T-173/98 Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council [1999] ECR II-3357, seeking to have that order set aside,

the other parties to the proceedings being:

Council of the European Union, represented by I. Díez Parra, acting as Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg,

defendant at first instance,

supported by

Commission of the European Communities, represented by J. Guerra Fernández and M. Condou-Durande, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg,

intervener in the appeal,

THE COURT,

composed of: G.C. Rodríguez Iglesias, President, P. Jann, F. Macken, N. Colneric, S. von Bahr (Presidents of Chambers), C. Gulmann (Rapporteur), D.A.O. Edward, A. La Pergola, J.-P. Puissochet, M. Wathelet, R. Schintgen, V. Skouris and J.N. Cunha Rodrigues, Judges,

Advocate General: F.G. Jacobs,

Registrar: D. Louterman-Hubeau, Head of Division,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing oral argument from the parties at the hearing on 6 November 2001, at which Unión de Pequeños Agricultores was represented by J. Jiménez Laiglesia y de Oñate, the Council by I. Díez Parra and the Commission by J. Guerra Fernández and M. Condou-Durande,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 21 March 2002,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By application lodged at the Court Registry on 16 February 2000, Unión de Pequeños Agricultores brought an appeal, pursuant to Article 49 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice, against the order of the Court of First Instance of 23 November 1999 in Case T-173/98 Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council [1999] ECR II-3357 (the contested order), by which that court dismissed its application for partial annulment of Regulation (EC) No 1638/98 of 20 July 1998 amending Regulation No 136/66/EEC on the establishment of a common organisation of the market in oils and fats (OJ 1998 L 210, p. 32; the contested regulation).

The legal framework

2 On 22 September 1966, the Council adopted Regulation No 136/66/EEC on the establishment of a common organisation of the market in oils and fats (OJ, English Special Edition...