Commission v Greece: ECJ 30 Jun 1988

1. Although the powers conferred on the Commission by Article 90(3) of the Treaty operate in a specific field of application and under conditions defined by reference to the particular objective of that article, that does not prevent the ‘directives’ and ‘decisions’ referred to in that provision from falling within the general category of directives and decisions referred to in Article 189.
Consequently, a decision based on Article 90(3) is, by virtue of the fourth paragraph of Article 189, ‘binding in its entirety’ upon the Member State to which it is addressed.
2. The system of remedies set up by the Treaty distinguishes between the remedies provided for in Articles 169 and 170, which permit a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations, and those contained in Articles 173 and 175, which permit judicial review of the lawfulness of measures adopted by the Community institutions, or the failure to adopt such measures. Those remedies have different objectives and are subject to different rules. In the absence of a provision of the Treaty expressly permitting it do so, a Member State cannot therefore plead the unlawfulness of a decision addressed to it as a defence in an action for a declaration that it has failed to fulfil its obligations arising out of its failure to implement that decision.
Such a defence could be upheld only if the measure at issue contained such particularly serious and manifest defects that it could be deemed non-existent.

Citations:

C-226/87, [1988] EUECJ C-226/87

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Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134680