The case is significant for being the first to suggest that the European Union is based on the "rule of law", and has been described as "legendary".
They sought a declaration that the European Community was not entitled to give funding for political parties.
The Court of Justice held the matter of party political funding should be regarded as one which is entirely for the member states to decide under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union article 7(2) of the Act of 20 September 1976 Concerning the Election of the Representatives of the Assembly Direct Universal Suffrage.
Natural and legal persons are thus protected against the application to them of general measures which they cannot contest directly before the Court by reason of the special conditions of admissibility laid down in the second paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty.
This system gave undue advantages to political entities belonging to an elective institution: for the Court, public resources should be allocated without distinction between parties present in Parliament and those willing to enter it for the first time.