Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Decision taken in the guise of a directive - Action brought by an association - Conditions - Inadmissible

(Art. 230, fourth para., EC)

Summary

$$Although the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC does not deal expressly with the admissibility of actions for annulment brought against a directive, that fact alone is insufficient for such actions to be declared inadmissible. It must be examined whether the contested directive is none the less a decision of direct and individual concern to the applicant, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, even though that decision has been taken in the guise of a directive. The Community institutions cannot exclude, merely by the choice of the form of the act in question, the judicial protection afforded to individuals under that provision of the Treaty.

Persons other than the addressees may claim that a decision is of direct concern to them, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, only if that decision affects them by reason of certain attributes which are peculiar to them, or by reason of factual circumstances which differentiate them from all other persons and thereby distinguish them individually in the same way as the person addressed.

An association formed for the protection of the collective interests of a category of persons cannot be considered to be individually concerned for the purposes of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC by a measure affecting the general interests of that category, and is therefore not entitled to bring an action for annulment where its members may not do so individually. However, the existence of special circumstances, such as the part taken by an association in the procedure leading up to the adoption of an act under Article 230 EC, may support the admissibility of an action brought by an association whose members are not directly and individually concerned by that act.

( see paras 23-25 )