Brussels, 19/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has not committed any legal errors by rejecting the European citizens' initiative in 2013, which demanded that adequate social protection and access to quality long-term healthcare is guaranteed throughout life.
In its decision (T-44/14) announced on Tuesday 19 March, the General Court of the EU subsequently rejected the appeal introduced by several citizens behind this initiative, which proposed to formulate such a guarantee in the shape of a Service of General Economic Interest (SGEI), which is excluded from the application of internal market rules. The interested parties contested the Commission's refusal to register their initiative. The latter justified its decision by arguing that this initiative fell outside its scope and that it could not therefore present a proposal for a legal act.
The General Court found in favour of the European Commission. It considers that the Union legislator cannot impose the provision of an SGEI on member states because it only has scope for determining the principles and conditions that member states have to respect in the hypothesis that they autonomously decide to provide a given SGEI themselves. The Commission cannot therefore propose exemptions to the application of the rules of the internal services market in which the SGEI is governed by the national policies outlined by each member state.
The Court also considered that the Commission was right to refuse registration of the initiative on the basis of Article 352 of the TFUE, which stipulates that if a Union action appears necessary as part of the policies defined in the treaties to attain one of the objectives included in the treaties, the Council voting by unanimity on the Commission proposal and after obtaining approval by the Parliament, can adopt the appropriate provisions. The judges believe that the request for registration does not contain the sufficient elements for demonstrating that the conditions for appealing under Article 352 have been met. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)
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