Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Action for damages - ECSC - Damage arising from decisions - Basis of claim - Co-existence of Article 34 and first paragraph of Article 40 of the Treaty

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40, first para.)

2. Non-contractual liability - ECSC - Conditions - Fault, damage and causal link - Insufficiency of mere illegality of a decision causing damage - Appraisal of fault of such a nature as to render the Community liable - Account to be taken of situations to be regulated, difficulties in applying texts and discretion of the institution

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40)

3. Non-contractual liability - ECSC - Stability of certain traditional deliveries - Annulment of the implied Commission decision refusing to act to ensure stability of certain traditional deliveries within the framework of the system of steel production and delivery quotas - No liability in view of situation to be regulated, difficulties in applying texts and the Commission' s discretion

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 34 and 40; general Decision No 234/84, Art. 15B)

4. Non-contractual liability - ECSC - Granting by the Commission, within the framework of the system of steel production and delivery quotas, of additional quotas for manufacture of semi-finished products intended for the production of small welded tubes - Repercussions on traditional deliveries - No liability in view of the absence of an obligation to conform to traditional patterns of deliveries

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 40; general Decision No 234/84, Art. 10, and No 3485/85, Art. 10)

Summary

1. The existence of the specific provisions of Article 34 of the ECSC Treaty under which, when the Commission has taken no steps to comply with a judgment declaring one of its decisions void, an undertaking which regards itself as having suffered direct and special harm by reason of that decision may apply to the Court, so as to obtain redress for the damage suffered, for a declaration that the decision declared void involves a fault, cannot debar the undertaking concerned, if faults other than that constituted by the decision declared void have contributed to the damage relied upon, from seeking an order that the Community is liable for a wrongful act or omission on the basis of the first paragraph of Article 40 of the ECSC Treaty, which contains nothing to prohibit its use in seeking to have the Community declared liable on the basis of the illegality of decisions.

2. In order that the Community may be rendered liable, Articles 34 and 40 of the ECSC Treaty require the existence of both injury and a fault; consequently the mere illegality of a decision which has caused the applicant injury is not enough.

In order to appraise the nature of the fault required to render the Community liable, it is appropriate, in the absence of any details in the provisions previously cited, to refer to the areas and conditions in which the Community institution acts. In that respect it is necessary to take into account in particular the complexity of the situations which the institution must regulate, the difficulties of applying the legislation and the discretion available to the institution under that legislation.

Finally, the existence of ECSC liability pre-supposes, apart from the existence of a fault and injury, the existence of a direct causal link between the two, the burden of proof of which lies upon the applicant.

3. In order to determine whether the Commission' s failure to adopt, under Article 15B of Decision No 234/84, corrective measures to maintain the stability of traditional deliveries of certain steel products constitutes a fault of such a nature as to render the Community liable, it must be placed in its context. In that respect it is important to recall that the said article introduced into the system of monitoring and production quotas for steel, to maintain the stability of such deliveries in the context of handling a difficult crisis situation, a method which called for sensitive application in the framework of a market based on free trade in goods. Hence the Commission could only tend to prudence in the application of provisions on whose compatibility with the Treaty an order of the Court had, in any case, cast doubt and which were challenged by a number of undertakings concerned. Consequently, the Commission' s action took place not only in an uncertain legal context, but also in a factual situation which was such as to cast serious doubt upon the effectiveness of the procedure provided for by the said article.

In those circumstances, the declaration by the Court that the implied decision refusing to adopt the measures provided for in Article 15B was void cannot suffice to render the Community liable.

4. The granting, on the basis of Article 10 of Decisions Nos 234/84 and 3485/85, of additional quotas for the manufacture of semi-finished products intended for the production of small welded tubes is in accordance with a more liberal scheme than that laid down for other products, and does not involve the need to conform to the system of stability of traditional patterns of deliveries.

That fact makes it impossible for the Commission to be charged with a fault such as to render the Community liable on the ground that the quotas granted under the said scheme adversely affected the traditional patterns of deliveries.