Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Appeals - Intervention - Status as intervener, acquired during the proceedings before the Court of First Instance, retained before the Court of Justice - Pleas which may be raised by an intervener in response to the appeal

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 49, second para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 115)

2 Actions for annulment of measures - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Commission decision addressed to the Member States introducing a safeguard measure

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.)

3 Appeals - Pleas in law - Incorrect assessment of the facts - Inadmissible - Appeal dismissed

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51)

4 Association of the overseas countries and territories - Implementation by the Council - Preservation of Community interests by inserting a safeguard clause in the arrangements giving free access to the Community market for agricultural products originating in the associated countries and territories - Lawful

(EC Treaty, Arts 3(r), 131, 132, 133(1) and 136, second para.)

5 Association of the overseas countries and territories - Safeguard measures vis-à-vis imports of agricultural products originating in the associated countries and territories - Conditions for introduction - Discretion of the Commission

(Council Decision 91/482, Art. 109)

6 Association of the overseas countries and territories - Safeguard measures vis-à-vis imports of agricultural products originating in the associated countries and territories - Product originating in the Netherlands Antilles placed in an unfavourable competitive position in relation to the Community product - Principle of proportionality - Breach - None

(Commission Decision 93/211)

7 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving choices of economic policy - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual - Measure in the form of a decision and of individual concern to the applicant - No bearing on the legislative character of the measure in respect of which the action for damages is brought

(EC Treaty, Arts 178 and 215, second para.)

Summary

1 It follows from Article 49 of the Statute of the Court of Justice that interveners before the Court of First Instance are regarded as parties before that court. Consequently, if an appeal is brought against that court's judgment, Article 115(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice applies to them, so that they are dispensed from having to make a fresh application to intervene before the Court of Justice under Articles 93 and 123 of the Rules of Procedure.

Since no distinction is made, as regards the pleas they may raise in an appeal, between the parties who are entitled to lodge a response, an intervener who is so entitled must be able to raise pleas relating to any point of law on which the contested judgment is based. Such a party may therefore plead before the Court of Justice that the application was inadmissible, despite the fact that the party it supported before the Court of First Instance, which raised that plea at first instance, has not repeated it in its response to the appeal.

2 The judicial protection which an individual enjoys under the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty cannot depend on whether the contested decision is addressed to one Member State or to several, but must be established on the basis of the specific situation of that individual compared to all other persons concerned. More particularly, in the case of a decision introducing a safeguard measure, what matters for identifying the persons individually concerned by that decision is the protection enjoyed under Community law by the country or territory, and by the undertakings concerned, against which the safeguard measure is adopted.

3 The Court of First Instance has exclusive jurisdiction to find the facts, save where a substantive inaccuracy in its findings is attributable to the documents submitted to it, and to appraise those facts. That appraisal thus does not, save where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice in the context of an appeal.

4 The adoption by the Community of a safeguard clause authorising restrictions on the freedom to import agricultural products originating in the overseas countries and territories (OCTs) is not excluded in the context of the second paragraph of Article 136 of the Treaty.

First, although the OCTs are associated countries and territories which have special links with the Community, they do not form part of the Community, and free movement of goods between the OCTs and the Community does not exist unrestrictedly at this stage, in accordance with Article 132 of the Treaty.

Second, when the Council adopts decisions concerning the OCTs under the second paragraph of Article 136, which authorises it to adopt decisions concerning the association on the basis of the principles set out in the Treaty, it must take account not only of the principles in Part Four of the Treaty on the OCTs but also of the other principles of Community law, including those relating to the common agricultural policy.

Moreover, the promotion by the Community of the economic and social development of the OCTs, which is provided for by Article 3(r) and Article 131 of the Treaty, does not imply an obligation to give them privileged treatment, and the abolition of customs duties on entry into the Community of products originating in the OCTs, provided for by Article 133(1) of the Treaty, does not exclude the possibility of adopting, on the basis of the second paragraph of Article 136, a safeguard clause which limits imports only exceptionally, partially and temporarily.

5 The Commission has a wide discretion in the application of Article 109 of Decision 91/482 on the association of the overseas countries and territories, which empowers it to take or authorise safeguard measures where certain conditions are met. In cases involving such a discretion, the Court of First Instance must restrict itself to considering whether the exercise of that discretion contains a manifest error or constitutes a misuse of power or whether the Commission clearly exceeded the bounds of its discretion.

6 The objective of Decision 93/211, by which the Commission reduced the minimum import price for rice originating in the Netherlands Antilles which it had imposed as a safeguard measure by Decision 93/127 to a level such that the rice in question was no longer in an unfavourable position in relation to rice from non-member countries, is to fix a threshold price for imports of Antillean rice which least disturbs the functioning of the association of the OCTs with the Community, while remedying the difficulties which have appeared on the Community market. Having regard to that objective, in so far as the decision places Antillean rice in an unfavourable competitive position in relation to Community rice, it is not contrary to the principle of proportionality, since it follows from the very essence of a safeguard measure that some imported products will be subjected to rules which are unfavourable in comparison with Community products.

7 In a legislative context involving the exercise of a wide discretion, a breach of Community law by an institution is not in itself sufficient for the non-contractual liability of the Community to be incurred, under the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty, in respect of damage suffered by individuals. Such liability cannot be incurred unless the institution concerned has manifestly and gravely disregarded the limits on the exercise of its powers.

Moreover, that a measure which is challenged in an action for damages is legislative in character is not excluded by the fact that it is in the form of a decision and hence in principle capable of being the subject of an action for annulment, nor by the fact that the applicant is individually concerned by the measure, since the legislative character of a measure depends on its nature, not its form, and an action for damages is an independent remedy.