Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Procedure - Application initiating proceedings - Procedural requirements - Statement of the subject-matter of the proceedings - Summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based - Application for compensation for damage caused by a Community institution

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 19; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 44(1)(c))

2 Actions for damages - Capacity to act - Trade association - Interest of its own or assignment of entitlement to compensation

(EC Treaty, Art. 215)

3 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Unlawfulness - Damage - Causal link - Concept - Burden of proof

(EC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.)

Summary

1 Under Article 19 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 44(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, any application must state the subject-matter of the proceedings and contain a summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based. Those particulars must be sufficiently clear and precise to enable the defendant to prepare its defence and the Court to rule on the application, where appropriate, without any other information in support. In order to guarantee legal certainty and the sound administration of justice it is necessary, in order for an action to be admissible, that the basic legal and factual particulars on which the action is founded be indicated coherently and intelligibly, if only in summary form, in the application itself.

In order to satisfy those requirements, an application seeking compensation for damage caused by a Community institution must state the evidence from which, inter alia, the damage allegedly sustained by the applicant and, in particular, the nature and extent of that damage can be identified.

2 An association has the right to bring proceedings for damages under Article 215 of the Treaty only where it is able to assert in law either a particular interest of its own which is distinct from that of its members or a right to compensation which has been assigned to it by others.

3 The Community's non-contractual liability under the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty is dependent on the fulfilment of a series of conditions as regards the unlawfulness of the acts alleged against the Community institutions, the fact of damage and the existence of a causal link between the conduct of the institution concerned and the damage complained of.

There is a causal link for the purposes of the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty where there is a direct causal nexus between the fault committed by the institution concerned and the injury pleaded, the burden of proof of which rests on the applicants.