Action for Annulment Notes

LFEU Lecture 15 & 16 The Action for Annulment

Capacity to bring proceedings-

One of the entities that comes within this category of privileged applicants is the member states- what does member states mean is this context? For example, will it include Scottish government in England? Answer to that question- the term member state in this particular context means the central government of the member state and it doesn’t include regional governments or governments of autonomous entities within a member state. Those entities constitute legal persons, like companies, for purposes of article 263. Fall into third category on slide. Non-privileged applicants- limited right to bring proceedings. Category of privileged applicants- limited to central government of a member state.

Semi-privileged applicants- comprises of the Court of Auditors, the European Central Bank and the Committee of the Regions- can only bring proceedings for purposes of protecting their prerogatives- e.g. right to participate in process of adoption a union act. Cannot challenge ALL measures adopted by the institutions- can only challenge measures for purpose of protecting their own rights under the treaty.

Non-privileged applicants- individuals- natural and legal persons (e.g. regional government or state government of federal state like Germany )- The important thing to notice about these applicants is that their standing is privileged. Restrictions for right to bring proceedings of annulment- if you look at the fourth paragraph of article 263- a non-privileged applicant can bring proceedings against three types of act only:

* An act addressed to him- that addressee will have standing to challenge its legality- classic example- decision adopted applying treaty competition rules. Role in enforcing rules played by European commission which may address decision to individual companies- e.g. incompatible company with treaty- if company not happy and wants to challenge its legality- has...