Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Actions for annulment ° Actionable measures ° Acts intended to have legal effects ° Commission communication presented as designed to specify the manner of application of a directive but creating new obligations for the Member States

(EEC Treaty, Art. 173; Commission Directive 80/723, Art. 5(2); Commission communication of 18 October 1991)

2. Community law ° Principles ° Legal certainty ° Community legislation ° Requirement for clarity and foreseeability ° Express indication of the legal basis

Summary

1. An action for annulment is available in the case of all measures adopted by the institutions, whatever their nature or form, which are intended to have legal effects. This applies to a Commission communication which sets out to specify the manner of application of Article 5(2) of Directive 80/723 on the transparency of financial relations between Member States and public undertakings, was published in the C Series of the Official Journal and was notified to each Member State.

That communication, which requires Member States annually to report to the Commission, on a general, systematic basis, data relating to the financial relations of a particular category of undertaking achieving a specified turnover, constitutes an act intended to have legal effects of its own distinct from those of Article 5(2) of the directive and adds new obligations to those provided for by that provision.

2. The principle of legal certainty, which is part of the Community legal order, requires Community legislation to be clear and its application to be foreseeable for all interested parties. As a result of that requirement, any act intended to have legal effects must derive its binding force from a provision of Community law which prescribes the legal form to be taken by that act and which must be expressly indicated therein as its legal basis, failing which the act in question will be null and void.