Opinion of Mr Advocate General Lenz delivered on 10 June 1986

1 Translated from the German.

2 Regulation No 17 of the Council of 6 February 1962 — First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty, OJ, English Special Edition 1959-1962, p. 87.

3 Bulletin of the European Communities 1983, No 7/8, paragraph 2.1.38.

4 OJ, L 252, p. 13.

5 Decision of 6 July 1967, in the version of that article as set out in the Decision of 23 July 1975, OJ 1975, L 199, p. 43.

6 Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities of 8 April 1965, Treaties establishing the European Communities, 1978, p. 785.

7 Journal Officiel 1967, No 147, p.1, referring to the Rules of Procedure of the Commission of the EEC, Journal Officiel 1963, p. 181.

8 The Commission's figures vary. During the written procedure, a figure of over 35000 decisions for 1984 was put forward but that was reduced to about 21000 at the hearing. Even on the basis of the figures published in the General Report on the Activities of the European Communities for 1984 and 1985, namely 5190 instruments, 555 proposals, recommendations or drafts and 242 communications, memoranda and reports (1985: 7442, 694 and 224 respectively), the number of decisions is considerable (see 18th General Report on the Activities of the European Communities, paragraph 23, and 19th General Report on the Activities of the European Communities, paragraph 26).

9 Regulation No 99/63 of the Commission of 25 July 1963 on the hearings provided for in Article 19 (1) and (2) of Council Regulation No 17, OJ, English Special Edition 1963-1964, p. 47.

10 Judgment of 11 November 1984 in Case 60/81, IBM v Commission, [1981] ECR 2639.

11 See the judgment of 26 June 1980 in Case 136/79, National Panasonic (UK) v Commission, [1980] ECR 2033.

12 Sec the judgment of the Court of 25 October 1977 in Case 26/76, Metro v Commission, [1977] ECR 1875, and the judgment of 11 October 1983 in Case 210/81, Demo-Studio Schmidt v Commission, [1983] ECR 3045.