Société Louis Dreyfus & Cie contra Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61996CJ0386
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1998:193
• Date: 05 May 1998
• Docket Number: C-386/96
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Recurso de anulación

Judgment of the Court of 5 May 1998. - Société Louis Dreyfus & Cie v Commission of the European Communities. - Emergency assistance given by the Community to the States of the former Soviet Union - Loan - Documentary credit - Action for annulment - Admissibility - 'Directly concerned'. - Case C-386/96 P.

European Court reports 1998 Page I-02309

Summary Parties Grounds Decision on costs Operative part

Keywords

1 Appeals - Pleas in law - Admissibility - Conditions - Submission of arguments also raised before the Court of First Instance - No effect

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

2 Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - `Directly concerned' - Criteria - Implementation of a loan from the Community to the Soviet Union and its constituent Republics - Commission decision, addressed to the borrower, refusing to approve as complying with the applicable Community provisions an addendum to contracts concluded between the borrower's authorised agent and an undertaking which has been awarded a supply contract - Undertaking `directly concerned'

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.)

Summary

1 Where an appeal against a judgment of the Court of First Instance clearly states which aspects of the contested judgment are criticised and the legal arguments which specifically support the appeal, the fact that those arguments were also raised at first instance cannot entail their inadmissibility.

2 For an applicant to be directly concerned by a Community measure - a condition of admissibility of an action for annulment brought by a natural or legal person against a decision addressed to another person - the contested Community measure must directly affect the legal situation of the applicant and leave no discretion to the addressees of that measure who are entrusted with the task of implementing it, such implementation being purely automatic and resulting from Community rules without the application of other intermediate rules. The same applies where the possibility for addressees not to give effect to the Community measure is purely theoretical and their intention to act in conformity with it is not in doubt.

In the case of implementation of a loan from the Community to the Soviet Union and its constituent Republics to enable agricultural and food products and medical supplies to be imported, an undertaking which has been awarded a contract to supply wheat is directly concerned, in the above sense, by a Commission decision, addressed to the financial agent of the borrower Republic, refusing to approve as complying with the applicable Community provisions an addendum made to contracts concluded between the undertaking and the agent authorised for that purpose by the borrower Republic, in so far as that agent's option to perform the supply contracts in accordance with the conditions repudiated by the Commission and thus to forgo Community financing was purely theoretical. The said decision, adopted by the Commission in the exercise of its powers, thus deprived the undertaking of any real possibility of performing the contract awarded to it, or of obtaining payment for supplies made thereunder.

Parties

In Case C-386/96 P,

Société Louis Dreyfus & Cie, a company incorporated under French law, established in Paris, represented by Robert Saint-Esteben, of the Paris Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of Aloyse May, 31 Grand-Rue,

appellant,

APPEAL against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (Third Chamber) of 24 September 1996 in Case T-485/93 Dreyfus v Commission [1996] ECR II-1101, seeking to have that judgment set aside,

the other party to the proceedings being:

Commission of the European Communities, represented by Marie-José Jonczy, Legal Adviser, and Nicholas Khan, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

THE COURT,

composed of: G.C. Rodríguez Iglesias, President, C. Gulmann, H. Ragnemalm, M. Wathelet (Rapporteur) and R. Schintgen (Presidents of Chambers), G.F. Mancini, J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, P.J.G. Kapteyn, J.L. Murray, D.A.O. Edward, J.-P. Puissochet, G. Hirsch, P. Jann, L. Sevón and K.M. Ioannou, Judges,

Advocate General: A. La Pergola,

Registrar: D. Louterman-Hubeau, Principal Administrator,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing oral argument from the parties at the hearing on 8 October 1997

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 16 December 1997,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By application lodged at the Registry of the Court of Justice on 28 November 1996, Louis Dreyfus & Cie (hereinafter `Dreyfus' or `the appellant') brought an appeal under Article 49 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 24 September 1996 in Case T-485/93 Dreyfus v Commission [1996] ECR II-1101 (hereinafter `the contested judgment'), dismissing as inadmissible its action for the annulment of the Commission's decision of 1 April 1993 addressed to the Vnesheconombank.

Legal background

2 On 16 December 1991, the Council adopted Decision 91/658/EEC granting a medium-term loan to the Soviet Union and its constituent Republics (OJ 1991 L 362, p. 89).

3 Article 1(1) thereof provides:

`The Community shall grant to the USSR and its constituent Republics a medium-term loan of not more than ECU 1 250 million in principal, in three successive instalments and for a maximum duration of three years, in order to enable agricultural and food products and medical supplies ... to be imported.'

4 Article 2 of Decision 91/658 provides that for those purposes:

`... the Commission is hereby empowered to borrow, on behalf of the European Economic Community, the necessary resources that will be placed at the disposal of the USSR and its constituent Republics in the form of a loan'.

5 Article 3 provides:

`The loan referred to in Article 2 shall be managed by the Commission.'

6 Article 4 further provides:

`1. The Commission is hereby empowered to finalise, in concert with the authorities of the USSR and its constituent Republics ..., the economic and financial conditions to be attached to the loan, the rules governing the provision of funds and the necessary guarantees to ensure loan repayment.

...

3. Imports of products financed by the loan shall be effected at world market prices. Free competition shall be guaranteed for the purchase and supply of products, which shall meet internationally recognised standards of quality.'

7 On 9 July 1992 the Commission adopted Regulation (EEC) No 1897/92 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of a medium-term loan to the Soviet Union and its constituent Republics [in accordance with] Council Decision 91/658/EEC (OJ 1992 L 191, p. 22).

8 Under Article 2 of that regulation:

`The loans shall be concluded on the basis of agreements entered into between the Republics and the Commission which shall include, as conditions for disbursement of the loan, the requirements set out in Articles 3 to 7.'

9 Article 4 of Regulation No 1897/92 states that:

`1. The loans shall only finance the purchase and supply under contracts that have been recognised by the Commission as complying with the provisions of Decision 91/658/EEC and with the provisions of the agreements referred to in Article 2.

2. Contracts shall be submitted to the Commission for recognition by the Republics or their designated financial agents.'

10 Article 5 sets out the conditions of recognition pursuant to Article 4. These include the two following conditions:

`(1) The contract was awarded following a procedure guaranteeing free competition ...

(2) The contract offers the most favourable terms of purchase in relation to the price normally obtained on the international markets.'

11 On 9 December 1992 the European Economic Community, the Russian Federation, as successor in law of the USSR, and its financial agent, the Vnesheconombank (`VEB'), signed a Memorandum of Understanding under Regulation No 1897/92, on the basis of which the European Community was to grant to Russia the loan provided for in Decision 91/658. It was provided that the EEC as lender would grant to the VEB, as borrower, under the guarantee of the Russian Federation, a medium-term loan of the principal sum of ECU 349 million for a maximum term of three years.

12 Paragraph 6 of the Memorandum provides:

`The proceeds of the loan, less commissions and costs incurred by the EEC, shall be disbursed to the borrower and applied, according to the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement, exclusively to cover irrevocable documentary credits issued by the borrower in international standard form pursuant to delivery contracts provided that such contracts and documentary credits have been approved by the Commission of the European Communities as complying with the Council decision of 16 December 1991 and the present Memorandum of Understanding.'

13 Paragraph 7 sets out the conditions to which recognition of the conformity of the contract is...