Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

Procedure - Third-party proceedings - Judgment given in proceedings against a Member State for failure to fulfil its obligations - Natural or legal persons - Inadmissibility

( Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, Arts 37 and 39; Rules of Procedure, Art . 97 )

Summary

Natural or legal persons other than the Member States and the Community institutions have no capacity to make an application originating third-party proceedings against a judgment of the Court given in proceedings for a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations .

In the first place, such persons do not fulfil the condition laid down by Article 39 of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Communities which restricts third-party proceedings solely to persons who could, as Article 97 of the Rules of Procedure specifies, have taken part in the case, since they are prevented by Article 37 of the aforesaid protocol from intervening in the proceedings for a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations, and secondly, it would be paradoxical, in view of the purpose of third-party proceedings and their role in contentious proceedings, if persons who are prohibited from intervening in a case were able, by those procedural means, to call in question the judgment given in that case .