1. Actions for damages - Limitation period - Starting point - Applicant considering, when it lodges its application, that it does not have all the evidence to show that the Community is liable - No effect
(EAEC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 44)
2. Actions for damages - Limitation period - Interruption - Conditions
(EC Treaty, Art. 173 (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC) and Art. 175 (now Art. 232 EC); EAEC Treaty, Arts 146 and 148; EAEC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 44)
1. The case-law according to which the limitation period for actions for damages cannot begin to run until all the conditions governing the obligation to pay compensation have been satisfied seeks to establish the criterion that, if the liability of the Community has its origin in a legislative measure, the damage which is the subject-matter of a claim for compensation must have materialised. In that situation, therefore, the limitation period cannot begin to run until the harmful effects of that measure have occurred. Therefore, far from rejecting the decisive criterion, laid down in Article 44 of the EAEC Statute of the Court of Justice, of occurrence of the act giving rise to the damage, that case-law, in essence, merely defines the parameters of that criterion in a situation in which an action for compensation is brought in respect of damage which the applicants may suffer as a consequence of the implementation of a legislative measure adopted at Community level. In any event, the fact that an applicant may have considered, when it sent its request for compensation, that it did not yet have all the evidence it needed to prove to the requisite legal standard in judicial proceedings that the Community was liable could not, as such, prevent the limitation period from running. If that were the case, a confusion would arise between the procedural criterion relating to the commencement of the limitation period and the finding that the conditions for liability were satisfied, which can ultimately be made only by the court before which the matter has been brought for final adjudication on its substance.
( see paras 23-24 )
2. Under Article 44 of the EAEC Statute of the Court of Justice, the limitation period in respect of an action for damages against the Community is interrupted either by the application made to the Community Court, or by a preliminary request addressed to the relevant institution, it being however understood that, in the latter case, interruption only occurs if the request is followed by an application within the time-limits determined by reference to Article 173 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 230 EC) or Article 175 thereof (now Article 232 EC), which correspond to Articles 146 and 148 of the EAEC Treaty.
( see para. 25 )