10.6.2014

Official Journal of the European Union

C 175/27

(Case C-136/14)

2014/C 175/34

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: European Parliament (represented by: J. Rodrigues and L. Visaggio, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Council of the European Union

Form of order sought

—annul Council Directive 2013/64/EU of 17 December 2013 amending Council Directives 91/271/EEC and 1999/74/EC, and Directives 2000/60/EC, 2006/7/EC, 2006/25/EC and 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, following the amendment of the status of Mayotte with regard to the European Union. (1)

—order the Council of the European Union to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The European Parliament seeks annulment of Directive 2013/64/EU which the Council adopted on the legal basis of Article 349 TFEU.

According to the Parliament, the legal basis chosen by the Council is incorrect, on the ground that the measures provided for in the contested directive come under the responsibilities of the European Union pursuant to various common policies. Those measures should therefore have been adopted under sector-specific legal bases concerning the areas of environment, agriculture, social policy and public health, namely Articles 43(2), 114, 153(2), 168 and 192(1) TFEU and not on the basis of Article 349 TFEU.

For the Parliament, measures which are not designed to deal with the economic or social constraints which an outermost region is facing by means of derogation from the full application of EU law in the region concerned cannot legitimately be based on the legal basis of Article 349 TFEU. Accordingly, measures which merely seek to postpone the application of certain provisions of EU law to an outermost region do not fall within the scope of that Article.

(1)

OJ 2013 L 353, p. 8.