Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

Order of the General Court (First Chamber) of 16 October 2014 -
Chatzithoma v Commission and ECB

(Case T-329/13)

Action for annulment - Cyprus stability support programme - Declaration of the Eurogroup concerning the restructuring of the banking sector in Cyprus - Erroneous identification of the defendant in the application - Inadmissibility

1.                     Judicial proceedings - Application initiating proceedings - Formal requirements - Identification of the defendant - Designation as defendant, without error on the part of the applicant, of a person other than the author of the contested measure - Inadmissibility - Limits - Factors allowing the defendant to be identified without difficulty (Art. 263, first para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 21; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 44(1)(b)) (see para. 36)

2.                     Economic and monetary policy - Monetary policy - Coordination of monetary policies - Informal meeting of Member States using the euro within the Eurogroup - Autonomous entity - Imputation of the declarations adopted to the Commission or the European Central Bank - Exclusion (Art. 137 TFEU; Protocol No 14 annexed to the EU and FEU Treaties) (see paras 39, 41-45)

3.                     Economic and monetary policy - Economic policy - Coordination of economic policies - European stability mechanism - Possibility of the Commission and the European Central Bank exercising review powers - Exclusion (Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism, Arts 1, 2 and 32(2)) (see paras 47, 48)

4.                     Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Concept - Measures producing binding legal effects - Assessment of those effects by reference to the substance of the measure - Declarations adopted by the Eurogroup - Not included (Arts 137 TFEU and 263(1) TFEU; Protocol No 14 annexed to the EU and FEU Treaties) (see paras 51-53, 60)

5.                     Actions for annulment - Jurisdiction of the EU judicature - Claim for a declaratory judgment - Inadmissibility (Art. 263 TFEU) (see para. 64)

Re:

APPLICATION for annulment of the declaration of the Eurogroup of 25 March 2013 concerning, inter alia, the restructuring of the banking sector in Cyprus.

Operative part

1.

The action is dismissed as inadmissible.

2.

Petros Khatzithoma and Elenitsa Khatzithoma are ordered to pay, in addition to their own costs, the costs incurred by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank (ECB).