Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Community law - Principles - Right to an effective remedy - Assessment - Remedies enabling individuals to contest the legality of Community measures of general application which directly affect their legal situation - Proceedings before a national court giving rise to a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling and actions based on the non-contractual liability of the Community - Such proceedings are inadequate to guarantee individuals effective judicial protection - No effect on the system of remedies or on the conditions for admissibility of an action for annulment

(Arts 230, fourth para., EC, 234 EC, 235 EC and 288, second para., EC; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 47; European Convention on Human Rights, Arts 6 and 13)

2. Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Definition of a person individually concerned by a measure of general application - Interpretation - Measure must affect that person's legal position definitely and immediately by restricting his rights or imposing obligations on him - Whether account to be taken of the number and position of other persons who are likewise affected by the measure or may be so - Not relevant

(Art. 230, fourth para., EC)

Summary

$$1. The procedures provided for in, on the one hand, Article 234 EC and, on the other hand, Article 235 EC and the second paragraph of Article 288 EC can no longer be regarded, in the light of Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights and of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as guaranteeing persons the right to an effective remedy enabling them to contest the legality of Community measures of general application which directly affect their legal situation.

First, as regards proceedings before a national court giving rise to a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC, in certain cases, there are no acts of implementation capable of forming the basis of an action before national courts. Thus, the fact that an individual affected by a Community measure may be able to bring its validity before the national courts by violating the rules it lays down and then asserting their illegality in subsequent judicial proceedings brought against him does not constitute an adequate means of judicial protection. Individuals cannot be required to breach the law in order to gain access to justice.

Second, the procedural route of an action for damages based on the non-contractual liability of the Community provided for in Article 235 EC and the second paragraph of Article 288 EC does not, in certain cases, provide a solution that satisfactorily protects the interests of the individual affected. Such an action cannot result in the removal from the Community legal order of a measure which is nevertheless necessarily held to be illegal. Given that it presupposes that damage has been directly occasioned by the application of the measure in issue, such an action is subject to criteria of admissibility and substance which are different from those governing actions for annulment, and does not therefore place the Community judicature in a position whereby it can carry out the comprehensive judicial review which it is its task to perform. In particular, where a measure of general application is challenged in the context of such an action, the review carried out by the Community judicature does not cover all the factors which may affect the legality of that measure, being limited instead to the censuring of sufficiently serious infringements of rules of law intended to confer rights on individuals.

However, such a circumstance cannot constitute authority for changing the system of remedies and procedures established by the Treaty, which is designed to give the Community judicature the power to review the legality of acts of the institutions. In no case can such a circumstance allow an action for annulment brought by a natural or legal person which does not satisfy the conditions laid down by the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC to be declared admissible.

( see paras 45-48 )

2. There is no compelling reason to read into the notion of individual concern, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, a requirement that an individual applicant seeking to challenge a general measure must be differentiated from all others affected by it in the same way as an addressee. In those circumstances, and having regard to the fact that the Treaty established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to permit the Community judicature to review the legality of measures adopted by the institutions, the strict interpretation, applied until now, of the notion of a person individually concerned according to the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, must be reconsidered. Consequently, in order to ensure effective judicial protection for individuals, a natural or legal person is to be regarded as individually concerned by a Community measure of general application that concerns him directly if the measure in question affects his legal position, in a manner which is both definite and immediate, by restricting his rights or by imposing obligations on him. The number and position of other persons who are likewise affected by the measure, or who may be so, are of no relevance in that regard.

( see paras 49-51 )