Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for annulment - Time-limits - Point from which time begins to run - Measure neither published nor notified to the applicant - Precise knowledge of the content of the measure and of the reasons on which it is based - Obligation to request the whole text of the measure within a reasonable period once knowledge of its existence is acquired - Council decision addressed to a Member State - Precise knowledge on the part of the Commission - Specific case

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

Summary

In the absence of publication or notification, it is for the party which has knowledge of a decision concerning it to request the whole text thereof within a reasonable period. Subject to that reservation, the period for bringing an action can begin to run only from the moment at which the third party concerned acquires precise knowledge of the content of the decision in question and of the reasons on which it is based in such a way as to enable it to exercise its right of action.

In the case of a Council decision addressed to a Member State, the draft of which was disclosed to the members of the Council and of the Commission, and where the procedure for adoption of the decision was the subject of minutes drawn up by the Secretariat General of the Commission, the latter had precise and detailed knowledge of the decision at the latest by the date on which the said minutes were drawn up.