The Standing of Private Parties to Challenge Community Measures: Has the European Court Missed the Boat?

Abstract

This article will consider recent case-law developments concerning the standing conditions that natural and legal persons must satisfy in order to bring annulment proceedings against acts of EC institutions. These conditions, set out in Article 230(4) EC, have been so narrowly interpreted by the European Court of Justice for over forty years that private parties have rarely been able to surmount this formidable admissibility barrier when challenging Community acts. In March 2002, Advocate General Jacobs delivered a compelling Opinion in Unión de Pequeños Agricultores (UPA) v. Council , where he suggested a new interpretation of the test of individual concern, which stands at the core of the locus standi requirements in Article 230(4) EC. Only a few weeks later the Court of First Instance dramatically departed from previous case law and re-defined that same test in Jégo Quéré v. Commission , although it did so in narrower terms than those proposed by Advocate General Jacobs. However, any hopes that the time was ripe for a re-examination of the case law on individual concern, were dashed by the European Court in its judgment in UPA v. Council. The Court did not follow either the suggestions of Advocate General Jacobs or of the Court of First Instance, stating instead that it was for the Member States acting in the European Council and not for the Court, to reform the conditions of admissibility set out in Article 230(4) EC.