Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for annulment - Judgment granting annulment - Effects - Obligation to adopt implementing measures - Scope - Account to be taken of both the grounds and operative part of the judgment - Adoption of a fresh act on the basis of the previous preparatory acts - Whether permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 176)

Summary

According to Article 176 of the Treaty, an institution whose act has been declared void must, in order to comply with the judgment and to implement it fully, have regard not only to the operative part of the judgment but also to the grounds which led to the judgment and constitute its essential basis, in so far as they are necessary to determine the exact meaning of what is stated in the operative part. It is those grounds which, on the one hand, identify the precise provision held to be illegal and, on the other, indicate the specific reasons which underlie the finding of illegality contained in the operative part and which the institution concerned must take into account when replacing the annulled measure.

The procedure for replacing such a measure may thus be resumed at the very point at which the illegality occurred, since annulment of a Community measure does not necessarily affect the preparatory acts leading up to its adoption.

In that case, where the compatibility of State aid with the common market is being examined, the Commission may, without infringing the right to be heard, found its fresh decision exclusively on the information which it had at the time of the adoption of the annulled measure.