Romania v European Commission.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2024:164
• Date: 22 February 2024
• Docket Number: C-54/22
• Celex Number: 62022CJ0054
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Provisional text

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Ninth Chamber)

22 February 2024 (*)

(Appeal – Law governing the institutions – European Citizens’ Initiative – Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 – Registration of a proposed citizens’ initiative – Article 4(2)(b) – Proposed citizens’ initiative not falling manifestly outside the framework of the European Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the European Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties – Burden of proof – Power of the Commission to proceed with partial registration)

In Case C‑54/22 P,

APPEAL under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 27 January 2022,

Romania, represented by L.‑E. Baţagoi, M. Chicu, E. Gane and L. Liţu, acting as Agents,

appellant,

the other parties to the proceedings being:

European Commission, represented by H. Croce and C. Urraca Caviedes, acting as Agents,

defendant at first instance,

Hungary, represented by M.Z. Fehér and K. Szíjjártó, acting as Agents,

intervener at first instance,

THE COURT (Ninth Chamber),

composed of O. Spineanu-Matei, President of the Chamber, S. Rodin (Rapporteur) and L.S. Rossi, judges,

Advocate General: N. Emiliou,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

having regard to the written procedure,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 5 October 2023,

gives the following

Judgment

1 By its appeal, Romania seeks to have set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 10 November 2021, Romania v Commission (T‑495/19, EU:T:2021:781; ‘the judgment under appeal’), by which the General Court dismissed its action for annulment of Commission Decision (EU) 2019/721 of 30 April 2019 on the proposed citizens’ initiative entitled ‘Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures’ (OJ 2019 L 122, p. 55; ‘the decision at issue’).

Legal context

2 Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 on the citizens’ initiative (OJ 2011 L 65, p. 1, and corrigendum OJ 2012 L 94, p. 49) stated, in recitals 1, 2, 4 and 10 thereof:

‘(1) The [EU] Treaty reinforces citizenship of the [European] Union and enhances further the democratic functioning of the Union by providing, inter alia, that every citizen is to have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union by way of a European citizens’ initiative [‘ECI’]. That procedure affords citizens the possibility of directly approaching the [European] Commission with a request inviting it to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties similar to the right conferred on the European Parliament under Article 225 [TFEU] and on the Council [of the European Union] under Article 241 TFEU.

(2) The procedures and conditions required for the [ECI] should be clear, simple, user-friendly and proportionate to the nature of the [ECI] so as to encourage participation by citizens and to make the Union more accessible. They should strike a judicious balance between rights and obligations.

…

(4) The Commission should, upon request, provide citizens with information and informal advice about [ECIs], notably as regards the registration criteria.

…

(10) In order to ensure coherence and transparency in relation to proposed [ECIs] and to avoid a situation where signatures are being collected for a proposed [ECI] which does not comply with the conditions laid down in this Regulation, it should be mandatory to register such initiatives on a website made available by the Commission prior to collecting the necessary statements of support from citizens. All proposed [ECIs] that comply with the conditions laid down in this Regulation should be registered by the Commission. The Commission should deal with registration in accordance with the general principles of good administration.’

3 Article 1 of Regulation No 211/2011 provided:

‘This Regulation establishes the procedures and conditions required for [an ECI] as provided for in Article 11 TEU and Article 24 TFEU.’

4 Under Article 2 of that regulation:

‘For the purpose of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

1. “[ECI]” means an initiative submitted to the Commission in accordance with this Regulation, inviting the Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties, which has received the support of at least one million eligible signatories coming from at least one quarter of all Member States;

…

3. “organisers” means natural persons forming a citizens’ committee responsible for the preparation of [an ECI] and its submission to the Commission.’

5 Article 4(1) to (3) of that regulation provided:

‘1. Prior to initiating the collection of statements of support from signatories for a proposed [ECI], the organisers shall be required to register it with the Commission, providing the information set out in Annex II, in particular on the subject matter and objectives of the proposed [ECI].

…

2. Within two months from the receipt of the information set out in Annex II, the Commission shall register a proposed [ECI] under a unique registration number and send a confirmation to the organisers, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

…

(b) the proposed [ECI] does not manifestly fall outside the framework of the Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties;

…

3. The Commission shall refuse the registration if the conditions laid down in paragraph 2 are not met.

Where it refuses to register a proposed [ECI], the Commission shall inform the organisers of the reasons for such refusal and of all possible judicial and extrajudicial remedies available to them.’

6 Annex II to that regulation, on required information for registering a proposed ECI, required that a range of information be provided in order to register such a proposal, namely the title thereof, its subject matter, a description of its objectives on which the Commission was invited to act, and the provisions of the Treaties considered relevant by the organisers for the proposed action. That annex provided, moreover, that the organisers could provide more detailed information on the subject, objectives and background to the proposal.

7 Regulation No 211/2011 was repealed, with effect from 1 January 2020, by Regulation (EU) 2019/788 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the European citizens’ initiative (OJ 2019 L 130, p. 55).

The background to the dispute and the decision at issue

8 The background to the dispute, as set out in the judgment under appeal, may be summarised as follows.

9 On 18 June 2013, the proposed ECI entitled ‘Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures’ (‘the proposed ECI at issue’) was submitted to the Commission.

10 By its decision C(2013) 4975 final of 25 July 2013, the Commission refused to register the proposed ECI at issue on the ground that that ECI fell manifestly outside the framework of its powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the European Union for the purposes of implementing the Treaties, within the meaning of Article 4(2)(b) of Regulation No 2011/2011.

11 By judgment of 10 May 2016, Izsák and Dabis v Commission (T‑529/13, EU:T:2016:282), the General Court dismissed the action for annulment brought against that decision.

12 On appeal, the Court of Justice, by judgment of 7 March 2019, Izsák and Dabis v Commission (C‑420/16 P, EU:C:2019:177), set aside that judgment of the General Court and, giving final judgment in the dispute itself, annulled Decision C(2013) 4975 final.

13 In particular, in paragraphs 61 and 62 of that judgment, the Court of Justice ruled that, for the purpose of assessing whether the condition of registration in Article 4(2)(b) of Regulation No 211/2011 is satisfied, the question whether the measure proposed in the context of an ECI falls within the framework of the Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the European Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties, within the meaning of that provision, is prima facie not a question of fact or of the assessment of evidence subject as such to the rules on the burden of proof, but essentially a question of the interpretation and application of the relevant provisions of the Treaties. As a consequence, it is not for that institution to ascertain, at that stage, that proof has been provided of all the factual elements relied on, or that the reasoning behind the proposal and the measures proposed is adequate, but to examine whether, from an objective point of view, such measures envisaged in the abstract could be adopted on the basis of the Treaties.

14 On 30 April 2019, the Commission adopted the decision at issue, by which the proposed ECI at issue was registered to the extent specified in Article 1(2) of that decision.

15 In recitals 1 and 2 of...