Category Archives: Legal base

Case T-320/09 Planet AE v Commission: Lack of Legal Basis, Breach of Rights of Defence, Lack of Reasons

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The General Court has handed down a number of interesting judgments lately and we need to catch up after a blogging hiatus.

Let’s start with the judgment of 22 April 2015  in Case T‑320/09 Planet AE Anonymi Etairia Parochis Simvouleftikon Ipiresion v Commission, EU:T:2015:223, in which the Court annulled a series of decisions of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) requesting the applicant’s registration in the early warning system (‘EWS’) put in place to ostensibly protect the EU’s financial interests.

The interest of the case lies in the fact that the judgment is a sort of text book case of judicial review.  The Court annulled the Commission decisions taken by OLAF on a number of grounds:

  • the Commission had no powers to adopt the measures challenged,
  • the Commission breached the fundamental rights of the applicant,
  • the decisions were not properly reasoned.

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Case C-658/11 Parliament v Council: International agreements and the role of the European Parliament

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There’s life beyond the Intel judgment.

The Court of Justice handed down an interesting one about the competence to conclude international agreements in the area of the common foreign and security policy in Case C-658/11 European Parliament v Council EU:C:2014:2025. Continue reading →

Joined Cases T-458/10 to T-467/10 and T-471/10 Peter McBride and others v Commission: Need for a legal base, principle of conferral

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The judgment of the General Court of 13 May 2014 in Joined Cases T-458/10 to T-467/10 and T-471/10 Peter McBride and others v Commission EU:T:2014:249 illustrates a basic point: the EU institutions need an express legal base in order to adopt a measure. No legal base, no competence. That’s called the principle of conferral. It is laid down in Article 13 (2) TFEU.

By its judgment, the General Court annulled a series of Commission decisions because they lacked a legal base. The case has quite a story….. Continue reading →

Case C-43/12 Commission v Parliament and Council: Legal basis, opt out

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There were nearly 30 000 deaths caused by road traffic accidents in the EU in 2012 (see table showing the evolution of road fatalities here. That’s a lot.

The Court of Justice’s judgment in Case C-43/12 Commission v Parliament and Council EU:C:2014:298 shows that attempts to put in place effective legislation to reduce the number of fatalities are frought with legal difficulties. Continue reading →