Judgment_paragraph 63 · Julia Abad Pérez and Others v Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities (T-304/01)

63The defendants further contend that their ‘omissions’ can give rise to liability on the part of the Community only where the institutions have infringed a legal obligation to act under a provision of Community law (Case T-196/99 Area Cova and Others v Council and Commission [2001] ECR II-3597, paragraph 84). Article 152(4)(b) and (c) EC merely set out the Community's public health objectives, without laying down a legal obligation to act. Likewise, Directives 89/662 and 90/425 give the Member States primary responsibility for monitoring health policy and inspection of animal products (order in United Kingdom v Commission, paragraphs 53 and 54), conferring only supervisory powers on the Commission. It is the Member States that have responsibility for the actual monitoring of the application of Community legislation, whilst the Commission's role consists essentially in monitoring national authorities' compliance with that obligation, as noted in the consolidated final report of the Temporary Committee of Inquiry of the Parliament of 20 October 1997 (COM(97) 509 final, p. 5).