In a judgment handed down on Thursday, 20 January (Case C-899/19 P), the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) confirmed the decision made by the European Commission on 29 March 2017 to register the citizens’ initiative (ECI) “Minority SafePack – one million signatures for diversity in Europe”, which was challenged by Romania but confirmed by the General Court of the EU on 24 September 2019 (T-391/17).
It dismissed Romania’s appeal against this judgment, holding that the General Court did not err in ruling that respect for minority rights and the strengthening of cultural and linguistic diversity—which are the objectives pursued with the legal acts proposed in the contested citizens’ initiative—are values and objectives of the European Union and, as such, must be taken into account in EU actions in the areas covered by the proposal.
Romania challenged the registration of the ECI, arguing that the European Commission had wrongly concluded that the legal acts proposed in the ECI were “not manifestly outside” the framework of its powers by virtue of which it can submit a proposal for an act and that the contested decision’s statement of reasons was insufficient. In this appeal, [Romania] also considered that, in rejecting its action against the European Commission’s decision, the General Court had erred in its interpretation of the provisions of the treaties relating to the competences of the EU and the European Commission’s obligation to state reasons and had committed procedural irregularities during the oral part of the procedure.
The Court of Justice refuted these arguments and dismissed the appeal, ruling that the General Court had “neither equated the values on which the European Union is founded with the specific objectives of the European Union that enable it to take legal action nor extended the competences of the latter to the extent of considering that it could adopt legal acts, without a legal basis, in order to ensure respect for the values of the European Union”. On the contrary, it rightly held that “insofar as they have a valid legal basis, Union acts may also be directed towards respecting the values of the European Union, such as respect for minority rights as well as cultural and linguistic diversity”.
As regards the insufficient statement of reasons, the CJEU notes that the contested decision’s statement of reasons enabled Romania to ascertain the reasons why the European Commission considered the proposed ECI not to be manifestly outside its powers and enabled the EU judicature to review said decision.
As for the alleged procedural irregularities, the Court of Justice notes that the General Court only ruled on the pleas raised by Romania—pleas that the parties were able to discuss in the presence of both parties during the written and oral parts of the procedure before the General Court.
See the full judgment (in French): https://bit.ly/3qGGGLL (Original version in French by Francesco Gariazzo)