Republic of Poland v European Commission (C-335/09 P)
law://eu/cjeu/2009/c-335-09/para_156@2026-11-13
Key facts
Court
Court of Justice · Grand Chamber
Case
C-335/09 P · ECLI:EU:C:2012:385
Decided
26 Jun 2012
Procedure
Action for annulment
Applicant
Republic of Poland
Defendant
European Commission
Rapporteur
J.-J. Kasel
Advocate General
P. Cruz Villalón
Bench
11 judgesV. Skouris, A. Tizzano, J.N. Cunha Rodrigues, K. Lenaerts, J.-C. Bonichot, M. Safjan, G. Arestis, A. Borg Barthet, M. Ilešič, C. Toader, J.-J. Kasel
156The interpretation by the General Court of Case 136/77Racke [1978] ECR 1245 was wrong in so far as the decisive factor to take into account in the assessment of the lawfulness of the measures at issue in that case was the nature of the levies at issue and not who adopted them. The General Court was wrong to consider that the transitional measures could constitute a derogation from the rules which would otherwise apply to a given legal situation, such as Article 25 EC, whereas Article 41 of the 2003 Act of Accession does not authorise such a derogation, and any attempt to assume the existence of such a derogation on the basis of a teleological approach would be bound to fail on account of the fact that the measures provided for under Article 3 of Regulation No 1972/2003 are not necessary to achieve the objectives of that regulation. The Republic of Poland adds that the reasoning of the General Court in Case 119/86Spain v Council and Commission [1987] ECR 4121 cannot be applied in the present case, since the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties (OJ 1985 L 302, p. 23; ‘the 1985 Act of Accession’) contains an express authorisation for the adoption of a supplementary mechanism applicable to trade.