1. Having regard to the rules laid down in Article 195 of the Treaty concerning the composition of the Economic and Social Committee, a trade union which, at national level, represents merely one of the constituent elements of one of the categories of economic and social activity referred to in Article 193 and not the whole of that category is not in a position requiring the Council to take account of it in adopting its decision on the composition of the Committee. It cannot therefore be considered to be individually concerned by that decision within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty.
On the other hand, a candidate put forward by a Member State and not appointed by the Council is directly and individually concerned by the said decision.
2. Adequate representation in the Economic and Social Committee of the various categories of economic and social activity, as required by the second subparagraph of Article 195(1) of the Treaty, must be ensured at Community level. The Council has a wide discretion in ensuring such representation on the basis of lists of candidates submitted to it by Member States particularly since, having regard to the limited number of seats, it is not possible for all the constituent elements of each category of economic and social activity to be represented by nationals of each of the Member States.
3. In the context of the procedure for appointing members of the Economic and Social Committee, governed by Articles 194 and 195 of the Treaty, the Council must assess the representative character of the candidates appearing on the national lists, without being bound by any distinction made by the Member States between candidates proposed as principal candidates and those proposed as alternative candidates, before appointing the members of the Economic and Social Committee in accordance with the criteria laid down in Article 195.
With regard to the mandatory consultations provided for in Article 195(2), the Council must consult the Commission on the choices which it intends to make on the basis of the national proposals and not on those proposals themselves.
Citations:
C-297/86, [1988] EUECJ C-297/86
Links:
European
Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134515
