Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Privileges and immunities of the European Communities - Functional character - Scope - Limits - Institutions' duty of sincere cooperation with the Member States - Cooperation with the national judicial authorities seeking to ensure that Community law is respected

( EEC Treaty, Art . 5; Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, Art . 19 )

2 . European Communities - Institutions - Obligations - Assistance to be given to national judicial authorities seeking to ensure that Community law is respected - Procedure - Production of documents and authorization of officials to give evidence

( EEC Treaty, Arts 5 and 155 )

3 . Privileges and immunities of the European Communities - Refusal of an institution to cooperate with national judicial authorities seeking to ensure that Community law is respected - Review as to whether refusal is justified under the Protocol - Jurisdiction of the Court in the case of a request submitted by the national court

( EEC Treaty, Art . 164; Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities )

Summary

1 . In the European Economic Community, which is a community subject to the rule of law, relations between the Member States and the Community institutions are governed, according to Article 5 of the EEC Treaty, by a principle of sincere cooperation . That principle not only requires the Member States to take all the measures necessary to guarantee the application and effectiveness of Community law, if necessary by instituting criminal proceedings but also imposes on Member States and the Community institutions mutual duties of sincere cooperation . In the case of the Community institutions, this duty of sincere cooperation is of particular importance vis-à-vis the judicial authorities of the Member States who are responsible for ensuring that Community law is applied and respected in the national legal system .

In the light of those principles, the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities granted to the European Communities cannot be interpreted as permitting the Community institutions to neglect the aforesaid duty of cooperation, a duty which is, moreover, referred to in Article 19 of the Protocol, since the privileges and immunities which it confers have a functional, and therefore relative, character, being intended to avoid any interference with the functioning and independence of the Communities .

2 . It is incumbent upon every Community institution to give its active assistance to a national court hearing proceedings on the infringement of Community rules, which seeks the production of information concerning the existence of the facts constituting those infringements, by producing documents and authorizing its officials to give evidence in the national proceedings; that applies particularly to the Commission, to which Article 155 of the EEC Treaty entrusts the task of ensuring that the provisions of the Treaty and the measures taken by the institutions pursuant thereto are applied .

3 . The Court, which is responsible under Article 164 of the Treaty for ensuring that in the interpretation and application of the Treaty the law is observed, has the power to review at the request of a national judicial authority whether the Community institutions' reliance on the Protocol in order to refuse to cooperate with national judicial authorities hearing charges concerning the infringement of Community law is justified in view of the need to avoid any interference with the functioning and independence of the Communities