Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Acts of the institutions — Choice of legal basis — Criteria — Community measure pursuing a twofold purpose or having a twofold component — Reference to the main or predominant purpose or component — Inseparable purposes — Joint legal basis

2. International agreements — Conclusion — EC-United States agreement on the coordination of energy-efficient labelling programmes for office equipment (Energy Star Agreement) — Agreement falling principally within the scope of commercial policy — Predominance over the objective of environmental protection — Legal basis — Article 133 EC, in conjunction with Article 300(3) EC — Irrelevant that participation in the labelling programme is not mandatory — (Arts 133 EC and 300(3) EC)

Summary

1. The choice of the legal basis for a Community measure must rest on objective factors amenable to judicial review, which include in particular the aim and the content of the measure. If examination of a Community measure reveals that it pursues a twofold purpose or that it has a twofold component and if one is identifiable as the main or predominant purpose or component, whereas the other is merely incidental, the measure must be founded on a single legal basis, namely that required by the main or predominant purpose or component. By way of exception, if it is established that the measure simultaneously pursues several objectives which are inseparably linked without one being secondary and indirect in relation to the other, the measure must be founded on the corresponding legal bases.

see paras 33-35

2. The Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the European Community on the coordination of energy-efficient labelling programmes for office equipment (the Energy Star Agreement) simultaneously pursues a commercial-policy objective and an environmental-protection objective since, on the one hand, such coordination necessarily facilitates trade inasmuch as manufacturers henceforth need to refer to just one standard as regards labelling and to comply with just one registration procedure with a single management entity in order to sell equipment bearing the Energy Star logo on the European and American markets and, on the other, by stimulating the supply of and demand for energy-efficient products the labelling programme in question is intended in the long term to promote energy savings and should therefore have a positive environmental effect.

However, the commercial-policy objective must be regarded as predominant, so that the decision approving the agreement should have been based on Article 133 EC, in conjunction with Article 300(3) EC, because the positive environmental effect is merely indirect and distant, in contrast to the effect on trade in office equipment which is direct and immediate. Furthermore, the agreement itself does not contain new energy-efficiency requirements, but merely renders the specifications initially adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency applicable on both the American market and the European market and makes their amendment subject to the agreement of both contracting parties.

The fact that participation in the Energy Star labelling programme is not mandatory cannot affect that conclusion because, first, the agreement is none the less designed to have a direct impact on trade in office equipment by facilitating such trade for manufacturers and enabling consumers to choose the products which use the least energy and, second, it is clear from the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade which is annexed to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation that non-binding labelling provisions may constitute an obstacle to international trade.

see paras 36-45, 48