93The Commission is bound, in its relations with the Member States, to respect the conditions it has imposed on itself by implementing regulations. However, the Member States cannot, in their relations with the Commission, adopt purely formalist positions, when it is clear from the circumstances that their rights were fully protected. Where the document in question, in the present case the letter of 3 November 1997, informs the government concerned fully about the Commission's reservations and the adjustments which will probably be made in relation to the sector in question, so that it can fulfil the warning function given to written communications by Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70 and the first subparagraph of Article 8(1) of Regulation No 1663/95, the mere omission, in that document, of a reference to Regulation No 1663/95 cannot be regarded as a breach of an essential formal requirement (see to that effect Case C-170/00 Finland v Commission [2002] ECR I-1007, paragraph 34).
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