Republic of Poland v European Commission (C-335/09 P)
law://eu/cjeu/2009/c-335-09/para_180@2026-11-14
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
180According to the Court’s settled case-law, any economic operator on whose part an institution has promoted reasonable expectations may rely on the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations. Furthermore, while the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations is one of the fundamental principles of the European Union, economic operators are not justified in having a legitimate expectation that an existing situation which is capable of being altered by the Community institutions in the exercise of their discretionary power will be maintained, particularly in an area such as that of the common organisation of the markets, the objective of which involves constant adjustment to reflect changes in economic circumstances (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C-37/02 and C-38/02Di Lenardo and Dilexport [2004] ECR I-6911, paragraph 70 and the case-law cited).