76With regard to the appellant's not having an interest in seeking a declaration that the second sentence of Article 115(4) of Regulation No 40/94 is unlawful, on the ground that there is no legal connection between that provision and the contested decision, it must be observed that a plea that the action was inadmissible in that it sought a declaration that Article 115 of Regulation No 40/94 was unlawful was raised by the Office before the Court of First Instance and indeed is set out by that court at paragraphs 15 to 17 of the contested judgment. The Court of First Instance rejected that argument at paragraphs 24 and 25 of the judgment and, at paragraphs 32 and 33, set limits on the admissibility of the plea of illegality. As was stated at paragraphs 39 and 40 of this judgment, the second sentence of Article 115(4) of Regulation No 40/94 is one of the provisions that define the scope and legal effects of the choice of a second language and in respect of which the Court of First Instance, in the second sentence of paragraph 32 of the contested judgment, found the plea of illegality to be admissible. Since the Office does not challenge those facts and advances no reason why the analysis of the Court of First Instance, which led it to conclude that there is a direct legal connection between the contested decision and the obligation whose legality the appellant is challenging, should be contrary to Community law, the argument that the appellant lacks any interest in a declaration of invalidity in relation to that provision of Regulation No 40/94 must be rejected.
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