República Portuguesa contra Consejo de la Unión Europea.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61996CJ0149
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1999:574
• Docket Number: C-149/96
• Date: 23 November 1999
• Procedure Type: Recurso de anulación - infundado
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Avis juridique important

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61996J0149

Judgment of the Court of 23 November 1999. - Portuguese Republic v Council of the European Union. - Commercial policy - Access to the market in textile products - Products originating in India and Pakistan. - Case C-149/96.

European Court reports 1999 Page I-08395

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

1 Actions for annulment of measures - Pleas in law - Not possible to rely on the GATT rules in order to contest the lawfulness of a Community act - Exceptions - Community measure intended to implement a GATT rule or expressly and specifically referring thereto

(EC Treaty, Art. 173 (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC))

2 Acts of the institutions - Publication - Belated publication - Whether the validity of the measure is affected - No effect

3 Acts of the institutions - Council resolution concerning the quality of the drafting of Community legislation - No binding effect

4 Common commercial policy - Community rules - Whether traders have a legitimate expectation that an existing situation will be maintained - No legitimate expectation

5 Community law - Principles - Equal treatment - Discrimination - Meaning

Summary

1 Having regard to their nature and structure, World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements are not in principle among the rules in the light of which the Court is to review the legality of measures adopted by the Community institutions.

It is for the Court to review the legality of a Community measure in the light of the WTO rules only where the Community intended by means of that measure to implement a particular obligation assumed in the context of the WTO, or where the measure refers expressly to the precise provisions of the WTO agreements.

2 The belated publication of a Community measure in the Official Journal of the European Communities does not affect the validity of that measure.

3 The Council resolution of 8 June 1993 concerning the quality of the drafting of Community legislation has no binding effect and places no obligation on the institutions to follow any particular rules when drafting legislative measures.

4 The principle of the protection of legitimate expectations cannot be relied upon to make a regulation unalterable, especially in sectors such as that of textile imports from non-member countries, where it is necessary constantly to adjust the rules to accommodate changes in the economic situation, and where, accordingly, such changes are reasonably to be expected.

5 The principle of non-discrimination requires that `comparable situations should not be treated in a different manner unless the difference in treatment is objectively justified'.

Parties

In Case C-149/96,

Portuguese Republic, represented by L. Fernandes, Director of the Legal Service of the European Communities Directorate-General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and C. Botelho Moniz, assistant in the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Portuguese Embassy, 33 Allée Scheffer,

applicant,

v

Council of the European Union, represented by S. Kyriakopoulou, Legal Adviser, and I. Lopes Cardoso, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of A. Morbilli, General Counsel in the Legal Affairs Directorate of the European Investment Bank, 100 Boulevard Konrad Adenauer,

defendant,

supported by

French Republic, represented by C. de Salins, Deputy Director for International Economic Law and Community Law in the Department of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and G. Mignot, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the same Department, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the French Embassy, 8B Boulevard Joseph II,

and

Commission of the European Communities, represented by M. de Pauw and F. de Sousa Fialho, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of C. Gómez de la Cruz, of the same Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

interveners,

APPLICATION for annulment of Council Decision 96/386/EC of 26 February 1996 concerning the conclusion of Memoranda of Understanding between the European Community and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and between the European Community and the Republic of India on arrangements in the area of market access for textile products (OJ 1996 L 153, p. 47),

THE COURT,

composed of: J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, President of the Third and Sixth Chambers, acting for the President, D.A.O. Edward, L. Sevón and R. Schintgen (Presidents of Chambers), P.J.G. Kapteyn (Rapporteur), C. Gulman, J.-P. Puissochet, G. Hirsch, P. Jann, H. Ragnemalm and M. Wathelet, Judges,

Advocate General: A. Saggio,

Registrar: H. von Holstein, Deputy Registrar,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing oral argument from the parties at the hearing on 30 June 1998,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 25 February 1999,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By application lodged at the Court Registry on 3 May 1996, the Portuguese Republic brought an action under the first paragraph of Article 173 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, the first paragraph of Article 230 EC) for the annulment of Council Decision 96/386/EC of 26 February 1996 concerning the conclusion of Memoranda of Understanding between the European Community and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and between the European Community and the Republic of India on arrangements in the area of market access for textile products (OJ 1996 L 153, p. 47, `the contested decision').

Legal and factual background

International multilateral agreements in the Uruguay Round

2 On 15 December 1993 the Council unanimously approved the terms of the global commitment on the basis of which the Community and the Member States agreed to end the multilateral trade agreements of the Uruguay Round (`the agreement of principle').

3 On the same day, the Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (`GATT'), Mr Sutherland, announced in Geneva to the committee for multilateral negotiations the closure of the negotiations of the Uruguay Round. In doing so he invited some of the participants to pursue their negotiations on access to the market, with a view to reaching a more complete and better balanced `market access' package.

4 Following the closure of those negotiations the negotiations on market access for textile and clothing products (`textile products') with, inter alia, the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan were pursued by the Commission, with the assistance of the `textile committee 113' of the Council (`the textile committee') designated by the Council to represent it in matters concerning the common commercial policy of the Community in the textile sector.

5 On 15 April 1994, at the Marrakesh meeting in Morocco, although the negotiations on access to the market in textiles had not yet been completed with Pakistan and India, the President of the Council and the Member of the Commission responsible for external relations signed the Final Act concluding the multilateral trade agreements of the Uruguay Round (`the Final Act'), the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation (`the WTO') and all the agreements and memoranda in Annexes 1 to 4 to the agreement establishing the WTO (`the WTO agreements') on behalf of the European Union, subject to subsequent approval.

6 Among those agreements, included in Annex 1 A to the agreement establishing the WTO, are the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (`the ATC') and the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures.

7 Following the signature of those measures the Council adopted Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994) (OJ 1994 L 336, p. 1).

The agreements concluded with Pakistan and India

8 Following the signature of the WTO agreements negotiations with India and Pakistan continued; they were conducted by the Commission with the assistance of the textiles committee.

9 On 15 October and 31 December 1994 the Commission, and India and Pakistan respectively, signed two `Memoranda of Understanding' between the European Community and India and Pakistan on arrangements in the area of market access for textile products.

10 The Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan contains a number of commitments on the part of both the Community and Pakistan. In particular, Pakistan undertakes to eliminate all quantitative restrictions applicable to a series of textile products listed specifically in Annex II to the Memorandum of Understanding. The Commission undertakes `to give favourable consideration to requests which the Government of Pakistan might introduce in respect of the management of existing [tariff] restrictions for exceptional flexibility (including carry-over, carry-forward and inter-category transfers)' (point 6) and to initiate immediately the necessary internal procedures in order to ensure `that all restrictions currently affecting the importation of products of the handloom and cottage industries of Pakistan are removed before entry into force of the WTO' (point 7).

11 The Memorandum of Understanding with India provides that the Indian Government is to bind the tariffs which it applies to the textiles and clothing items expressly listed in the Attachment to the Memorandum of Understanding and that `[t]hese rates will be notified to the WTO Secretariat within 60 days of the date of entry into force of the WTO'. It is also provided that the Indian Government may `introduce alternative specific duties for particular...