Judgment_paragraph 23 · Commission of the European Communities v Council of the European Union (C-211/01)

23Finally, the Commission points out that it is settled case-law that the choice of the legal basis for a Community measure must rest on objective factors amenable to judicial review, which include in particular the aim and the content of the measure (Case C-42/97 Parliament v Council [1999] ECR I-869, paragraph 36, and Case C-269/97 Commission v Council [2000] ECR I-2257, paragraph 43). However, measures or actions provided for in Community legislation sometimes pursue different aims, to which distinct legal bases are applicable. In such circumstances it is necessary, in order to determine the appropriate legal basis, to consider whether the measures in question relate largely or principally to a particular field of action, having only incidental effects on other policies, or whether both aspects are equally essential. If the first hypothesis is correct, recourse to a single legal basis is sufficient (Case C-70/88 Parliament v Council [1991] ECR I-4529, paragraph 17, and Case C-271/94 Parliament v Council [1996] ECR I-1689, paragraphs 32 and 33); if the second is correct, the institution is required to adopt the measure on the basis of both of the provisions from which its competence derives. However, no such dual basis is possible where the procedures laid down for each legal basis are incompatible with one another (see, inter alia, Case C-300/89 Commission v Council [1991] ECR I-2867, paragraphs 17 and 21, ‘Titanium dioxide’, and Joined Cases C-164/97 and C-165/97 Parliament v Council [1999] ECR I-1139, paragraph 14).