Judgment_paragraph 60 · CMA CGM and Others v Commission of the European Communities (T-213/00)

60The applicants submit that reliance on the wrong legal basis in itself justifies annulment of the contested decision — in whole or in part — regardless of any practical consequences arising from the Commission's mistake. It is clear from the judgments of the Court of Justice in Case C-22/96 Parliament v Council [1998] ECR I-3231 and Case C-376/98 Germany v Parliament and Council [2000] ECR I-8419, in which the Court annulled the directives at issue because they were adopted on the wrong legal basis, that ‘practical consequences’ are by no means a necessary condition for the annulment of a measure adopted on the wrong legal basis. The judgment of the Court of First Instance in Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer cited at paragraph 57 above, upon which the Commission relies, is irrelevant because, whilst the Court in that case referred to the adverse procedural consequences of choosing the wrong legal basis, it did not hold that such consequences were a necessary condition for the annulment of the measure vitiated by that error. Furthermore, there is no indication in the judgment of the Court of Justice on appeal in Case C-264/95 P Commission v Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer [1997] ECR I-1287) that the Court found that the Commission's choice of the wrong legal basis did not amount to an irregularity justifying annulment.