CJEU - Joined Cases T-156/13 and T-373/14 / Judgment

Petro Suisse Intertrade Co. SA v Council of the European Union
Policy area
Foreign and security policy
Deciding body type
Court of Justice of the European Union
Deciding body
Seventh Chamber
Type
Decision
Decision date
18/09/2015
ECLI (European case law identifier)
ECLI:EU:T:2015:646
  • CJEU - Joined Cases T-156/13 and T-373/14 / Judgment

    Key facts of the case:

    APPLICATION for annulment, first, of Council Decision 2012/829/CFSP of 21 December 2012 amending Decision 2010/413/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Iran (OJ 2012 L 356, p. 71) and also of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1264/2012 of 21 December 2012 implementing Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 concerning restrictive measures against Iran (OJ 2012 L 356, p. 55), and, secondly, of the Council’s decision contained in its letter of 14 March 2014 to maintain the restrictive measures taken against the applicant...

    Results (sanctions) and key consequences of the case:

    ...hereby:

    1. Dismisses the action;
       
    2. Orders Petro Suisse Intertrade Co. SA to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the Council of the European Union.
  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter

     

    92. Next, the principle of effective judicial protection is a general principle of EU law stemming from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, which has been enshrined in Articles 6 and 13 of the ECHR and in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The effectiveness of judicial review means that the EU authority in question is bound to communicate the grounds for a restrictive measure to the entity concerned, so far as possible, either when that measure is adopted, or, at the very least, as swiftly as possible after its adoption, in order to enable the entity concerned to exercise, within the periods prescribed, its right to bring an action. Observance of that obligation to communicate the grounds is necessary both to enable the persons to whom restrictive measures are addressed to defend their rights in the best possible conditions and to decide, with full knowledge of the relevant facts, whether there is any point in their applying to the Courts of the European Union, and to put the latter fully in a position in which they may carry out the review of the lawfulness of the measure in question which is their duty (see, to that effect and by analogy, judgment in Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission, cited in paragraph 90 above, EU:C:2008:461, paragraphs 335 to 337 and the case-law cited).

    ....

    120. First of all, it must be observed that the effectiveness of the judicial review guaranteed by Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights requires, in particular, that, as part of the review of the lawfulness of the grounds which are the basis of the decision to list or to maintain the listing of a given person, the Courts of the European Union are to ensure that that decision is taken on a sufficiently solid factual basis. That entails a verification of the factual allegations in the summary of reasons underpinning that decision, with the consequence that judicial review cannot be restricted to an assessment of the cogency in the abstract of the reasons relied on, but must concern whether those reasons, or, at the very least, one of those reasons, deemed sufficient in itself to support that decision, is substantiated (judgment in Kadi II, cited in paragraph 70 above, EU:C:2013:518, paragraph 119).