Judgment_paragraph 31 · Mercedes Janssen-Cases v European Commission (T-688/16)

31A delegation of power constitutes an act which deprives the delegating authority of the power delegated to the authority receiving the delegation (see, to that effect, judgment of 13 June 1958, Meroni v Haute Autorité, 10/56, EU:C:1958:8, pp. 77 and 78). The delegation of power therefore has the effect of causing a transfer of powers, which prohibits the delegating authority from referring to the transferred power, without rendering its decision invalid on the ground of a lack of competence. The delegating authority may exercise the power again only where it first adopts an act under which it recovers the delegated power. In the same way as a delegation of power requires the adoption of an express act transferring the power concerned (judgment of 13 June 1958, Meroni v Haute Autorité, 9/56, EU:C:1958:7, p. 42), the principle of legal certainty, which underpins the formal nature of operations involving the delegation of power, requires that the withdrawal of that delegation be made through the adoption of an express act.