A. Complaint is any written approach made to the European Commission pointing to measures, absence of a measure or practices of a Member State contrary to EU law.

A. Any citizen or legal person whose rights have been infringed due to lack of incorrect application of EU law. There is no need to demonstrate formal interest (i.e. no need to be specifically concerned by the issue).

IMPORTANT: the aim of the complaint is a general one, rather than directed to resolve personal situations. 

It is aimed at ensuring the laws of the Member State in question are brought fully into line with EU law and correctly applied.

In order to directly resolve your personal situation, or be awarded compensation, you should take action locally, in the Member State concerned.

• If solving your problem requires a national decision to be annulled, only national courts can do this
• If you are seeking compensation for damage, only national courts have the power to order authorities in their jurisdiction to award this.

Submitting a complaint to the European Commission does not suspend the time limits for starting legal action under national law.

A. Important source of information on: 

• Possible absence of transposition of measures or incorrect transposition. 
• Issue in terms of administrative practice.

A. 

• The complaint can concern an attitude of a Member State or situation for which the Member State is deemed responsible and which, in the view of the complainant, infringes EU Law.
• You may identify as much as possible the EU law that is supposedly infringed. You can contact the European Commission about any measure (law, regulation or administrative action), absence of measure or practice by a country of the European Union that you think is against EU law (see the examples from the Workshop speakers about implementation of Coman judgment and French blood donation regulation)

A.

• The complaint should be submitted in writing in one of the EU official languages. The language used in the complaint will be used for the reply.
• There is a specific form available online.
• It is important to use the form. Try to be as precise as possible (easier for the EC to understand how the issue falls within the scope of EU law). 
• Describe exactly how you believe that national authorities have infringed EU law, and which is the EU law that you believe they have infringed.
• Provide details of any steps you have already taken to obtain redress.

A. The complaint will not be recorded if: 

• Anonymous/ no complete address
  • if the complaint leads to contacts with the Member State, the complainant can tick a box requesting their name not to be disclosed to the Member State. 
• No reference to a Member State.
• Acts or omissions or a private person or body.
• Failure to set out a grievance.
• Setting out a grievance to which the European Commission has adopted a clear, public and consistent position, which shall be communicated to the complainant.
• Setting out a grievance clearly falling outside the scope of EU law.

A.    

• Acknowledgment of receipt: 15 working days. 
• Time-limit for investigation of the complaints: usually one year – extension possible. 
• The European Commission tries to inform the complainant at least once a year on the developments.

A. At each stage, the complainant is to be informed about developments of the case/ decision adopted. 

• Pre-closure: Four weeks deadline before closure for complainants to submit more/ new information.
• Transfer to SOLVIT (file closed).
• Transfer to EU Pilot (file closed): EU Pilot is an informal dialogue between the European Commission and the relevant Member State about issues related to potential non-compliance with EU law. This dialogue takes place before the Commission launches a formal infringement procedure. The complainant will be informed of the different steps taken with the Member State.
• Transfer for opening of an infringement procedure  (file closed):.  The case moves to a different stage referred for the infringement, the complainant is informed of the developments.
• Other: no registration in CHAP, withdrawal by the complainant. 

A. You can send an email to the email address mentioned in the acknowledgment of receipt mentioning the reference number of the complaint (CHAP(year)number). The correspondence will be added to the complaint file.

A. Legally, a complaint by an individual or a group of citizens would be assessed equally. However, a complaint filed by an association or a lawyer representing many citizens with the same problem would carry more political weight and may be more effective.

A. There is no requirement for the CJEU to have given a judgment on a matter or interpreting a EU law provision for a complaint to be filed with the European Commission. The complaint may point to a possible ambiguity of legislation that can lead to problems in practice. The EC can then consider if it would be appropriate to adopt measures - for example, discussing the interpretation and application of the provision with the Member States within the appropriate fora, issuing a communication or, if considered appropriate, requesting an Opinion from the CJEU.

See also Alina Tryfounidou’s presentation. 

A.

• Letters to the European Commissioners: Apart from the application procedure for complaints before the European Commission, citizens can address the EC by sending letters to the Commissioners to express their concerns and urge the Commissioners to act. This is also a helpful avenue to inform the Commission of problems.
• Submitting Petitions to the European Parliament: Any citizen of the European Union, or resident in a Member State, may, individually or in association with others, submit a petition to the European Parliament on a subject which comes within the European Union’s fields of activity and which affects them directly. 

Petition to the European Parliament can be submitted online here. The Petitions Committee is responsible for the examination and admission of any petition. A petition may take the form of a complaint, a request or an observation concerning problems related to the application of EU law or an appeal to the European Parliament to adopt a position on a specific matter. Your petition may therefore give the European Parliament the opportunity to call attention to any infringement of a European citizen's rights by a Member State, local authorities or other institutions. 

SOLVIT

1. What is it?

SOLVIT is an online service and free of charge. You can submit a problem if you haven’t taken your case to court.  

SOLVIT : 

• It is a network of civil servants in each Member State.
• Solves problems caused by incorrect application of EU law by an authority in another country.
• Applicable where at least two Member States are involved.
• Allows to avoid recourse to legal proceedings (time and cost).
• Provides real and quick solutions to problems .
• Suitable mostly to address administrative practices/issues/misunderstandings (not legislation).

2. Requirements and procedure

• Not any national proceedings (appeal or other cases before national jurisdictions).
• The situation can either go directly to SOLVIT.
• Or the complaint gives agreement for transfer (form to be sent to EC).
• Deadline: 10 weeks from attribution accepted by a SOLVIT centre.
• If the case cannot be solved and if there is no evidence => case closed. 

The Complaint can have political/mediatic/legal effect. Sometimes when deciding to initiate a legal proceeding, even if there is not much chance to win the case, initiation of the procedure can have the mediatic effect to advance LGBTI rights.

Complaints are used when there is an identified lack of implementation of EU law.

• Before 2015: It was impossible for gay men to donate their blood if they had had sexual intercourse with another man. This ban lasted their entire life. 
• 2015: CJEU condemned France, finding discrimination based on sexual behaviour (SB) to amount to discrimination based on sexual orientation (SO).
• 2016:
  • New French Law: no discrimination based on SO for blood donation.
  • Decree (Minister of Health): gay men must be abstinent for 1 year to give blood. 
    • Decree was challenged before the French Conseil d’Etat (CE). CE considered that French law complied with EU laws and French Constitutional laws because discrimination based on SB ≠ discrimination based on SO.
• Complaint before the European Commission 
  • Mediatic effect: On 20 June 2019, five French associations (Stop Homophobie, Mousse, Elus Locaux Contre le sida (ELCS), SOS homophobie and Familles LGBT) submitted a complaint before the European Commission describing the impact 
  • Immediate Political effect: French Government decided to change the law as soon the complaint was introduced, reducing abstinence period from one year to four months. 
  • Intended legal effect (still pending): EC and CJEU to clarify it is not possible to discriminate based on the behaviour when this behaviour has revealed a sexual orientation. 

Coman case: Issue of mutual recognition of a same-sex marriage contracted in another Member State

CJEU Judgement: 

WHEN an EU citizen moves from one Member State to another with the aim to settle in the latter, and that EU citizen is married to a person of the same-sex (in this case a third country national), and their marriage was contracted in an EU Member State, the Member State to which the EU citizen moves is required to recognise the couple as ‘spouses’ for the purpose of granting family reunification rights deriving from EU law (Dir. 2004/38 and Art. 21 TFEU). 

Result: EU citizens can move with their same-sex spouse to establish residency in their home country after having consolidated their family life for at least three months in another EU State.

• Despite the judgement, Romania still refuses to grand residency to same-sex spouses when marriage was contracted in another Member State.
• Solution: bringing complaints to the European Commission to ensure implementation of the judgement.   

See also presentation by Teodora Ion-Rotaru