Locus standi of non-privileged applicants in EU annulment actions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the circumstances under which private parties (natural and legal persons) can have a legal standing in annulment actions in EU Law. The limitations imposed on these private parties justifiably mark them as non-privileged applicants. Besides proving the legal grounds for initiating an annulment action and the compliance with the short preclusion period, two additional conditions must be cumulatively met: the non-privileged applicants must prove that they are directly and individually affected by the challenged act. The latter requirement, which is more disputable and difficult to meet, is additionally made more stringent in the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice. Therefore, the central part of the paper focuses on the analysis and criticism of the Plaumann test as an extremely strictly set application test for acquiring a legal standing by private parties. In light of understanding EU law as a comprehensive legal order including a complete system of protection of individual rights, the paper provides an overview of arguments and counter-arguments for a prospective reform of the Plaumman test. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the limiting conditions for locus standi of non-privileged applicants, as well as the occasional unavailability of legal remedies before national courts, are the shortcomings of EU law as an order that strives to achieve the rule of law and bring the EU closer to its citizens. In the past decades, the Plaumann test served as a tool for effectively denying the legal standing to private parties. Although the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) has made some progress in the direction of liberalizing the acquisition of locus standi, it is only the case in a limited and narrowly defined number of situations.