Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Actions for annulment of measures ° Natural or legal persons ° Measures of direct and individual concern to them ° Measure capable of giving rise to environmental damage as regards third parties ° No effect on the criteria for determining the existence of locus standi to bring proceedings

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

2. Actions for annulment of measures ° Natural or legal persons ° Measures of direct and individual concern to them ° Decision granting ERDF financial assistance for the construction of electricity power stations, addressed to a Member State ° Private individuals residing or working in the area of the power stations ° Inadmissibility

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

3. Actions for the annulment of measures ° Natural or legal persons ° Measures of direct and individual concern to them ° Decision granting ERDF financial assistance, addressed to a Member State ° Private individuals having submitted a complaint to the Commission ° Inadmissibility

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

4. Actions for the annulment of measures ° Natural or legal persons ° Measures of direct and individual concern to them ° Decision granting ERDF financial assistance for the construction of electricity power stations, addressed to a Member State ° Environmental protection association not having played any part in the procedure for the adoption of the decision ° Inadmissibility

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

Summary

1. Persons other than the addressees may claim that a decision is of individual concern to them only if that decision affects them by reason of certain attributes which are peculiar to them, or by reason of factual circumstances which differentiate them from all other persons and thereby distinguish them individually in the same way as the person addressed.

The criterion thereby applied, which requires a combination of circumstances sufficient for the third-party applicant to be able to claim that he is affected by the contested decision in a manner which differentiates him from all other persons, remains applicable whatever the nature, economic or otherwise, of the interests affected.

Even on the assumption that, where interests linked to environmental protection are involved, the mere existence of harm suffered or to be suffered can give rise to an interest in bringing an action for annulment, that harm cannot confer locus standi on an applicant if it is such as to affect, generally and in the abstract, a large number of persons who cannot be determined in advance in a way which distinguishes them individually in the same way as the addressee of a decision.

That conclusion cannot be affected by the fact that in the practice of national courts in matters relating to environmental protection locus standi may depend merely on the applicants' having a "sufficient" interest, since locus standi under the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty depends on meeting the conditions relating to the applicant' s being directly and individually affected by the contested decision.

2. As regards persons who rely only on their position as residents in the area of those power stations, fishermen, farmers or persons concerned by the consequences which those facilities might have on local tourism, on the health of residents and on the environment, a decision addressed to a Member State granting financial assistance from the European Regional Development Fund for the construction of two power stations is a measure whose effects are likely to impinge on, objectively, generally and in the abstract, various categories of person and in fact any person residing or staying temporarily in the area concerned. It does not, therefore, affect them by reason of certain attributes which differentiate them from any other person who is, or might be in the future, in the same situation, and is thus not of individual concern to them within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty.

3. The granting of financial assistance from the European Regional Development Fund does not comprise any specific procedures whereby individuals may be associated with the adoption, implementation and monitoring of decisions taken in that field. Merely submitting a complaint relating to funding which is envisaged and subsequently exchanging correspondence with the Commission cannot therefore give a complainant locus standi to bring an action under Article 173 of the Treaty against a financing decision which was not addressed to him and which does not concern him individually as if it had been addressed to him.

4. An association formed for the protection of the collective interests of a category of persons cannot be considered to be individually concerned for the purposes of the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty by a measure affecting the general interests of that category, and is therefore not entitled to bring an action for annulment where its members may not do so individually.

However, special circumstances such as the role played by an association in a procedure which led to the adoption of an act within the meaning of Article 173 of the Treaty may justify holding admissible an action brought by an association whose members are not directly and individually concerned by the contested measure.

There are no such circumstances in the case of an environmental protection association seeking to bring an action for the annulment of a Commission decision addressed to a Member State granting financial assistance from the European Regional Development Fund for the construction of two power stations, which relies for that purpose on an exchange of correspondence and a meeting with the Commission in that connection. Such contacts do not enable such an association to rely on an individual interest where the Commission did not, prior to the adoption of the contested decision, initiate any procedure in which the association was recognized as an interlocutor and where the contacts were for purposes of information only, since the Commission was under no duty either to consult or to hear the association before adopting its decision.