Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Acts of the institutions ° Statement of reasons ° Obligation ° Scope ° Provisions of Regulation No 404/93 relating to the rates of import duty on bananas and the subdivision of the tariff quota

(EC Treaty, Art. 190; Council Regulation No 404/93, Arts 18 and 19(1))

Summary

The statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question. The reasoning of the institution which adopted the measure must be stated clearly and unequivocally, so as to inform persons concerned of the justification for the measure adopted and to enable the Court to exercise its powers of review.

The statement of reasons for a measure is not, however, required to detail every relevant point of fact and law, as the question whether the statement of reasons satisfies the requirements of Article 190 must be considered with reference not only to its wording but also to its context and the whole body of legal rules governing the matter in question. Consequently, if the contested measure clearly discloses the essential objective pursued by the institution, it would be excessive to require a specific statement of reasons for each of the technical choices made by the institution.

Those requirements are satisfied in the case of Articles 18 and 19(1) of Regulation No 404/93 on the common organization of the market in bananas, which fix the rates of import duty within and without a specified tariff quota and subdivide that quota.

The recitals in the preamble to that regulation make it clear that imports not falling within the tariff quota are to be subject to sufficiently high rates of duty to ensure the disposal of Community and traditional ACP production, and unequivocally show the reasons by which the Council was guided in defining the criteria for subdividing the quota.