Case T‑125/18

Associazione Nazionale Granosalus — Liberi Cerealicoltori & Consumatori (Associazione GranoSalus)

v

European Commission

Order of the General Court (First Chamber), 14 February 2019

(Actions for annulment — Plant-protection products — Active substance ‘glyphosate’ — Renewal of inclusion in the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 — Act not of individual concern — Regulatory act entailing implementing measures — Inadmissibility)

  1. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual concern to them — Action brought by a trade association set up to protect and represent its members — Admissibility — Conditions

    (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU)

    (see paragraphs 43-46)

  2. Actions for annulment — Application brought by the natural or legal person to whom the contested measure is addressed — Notion of addressee — No one having been designated by the act — Not included

    (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU)

    (see paragraphs 49, 50)

  3. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual concern to them — Individual concern — Criteria — Commission regulation renewing the approval of an active substance in accordance with Regulation No 1107/2009 — Action by an association responsible for protecting the collective interests of its members — Members represented not individually concerned — Inadmissibility

    (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU; Regulation No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council; Commission Regulations Nos 540/2011 and 2017/2324; Council Directive 91/414, Annex I)

    (see paragraphs 52-55, 57, 60-62)

  4. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Regulatory acts entailing implementing measures — Notion — Criteria for assessment

    (Art. 263, para. 4 TFEU and Art. 277 TFEU)

    (see paragraphs 66, 68-73)

  5. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Regulatory acts entailing implementing measures — Notion — Commission regulation renewing the approval of an active substance in accordance with Regulation No 1107/2009 — Included

    (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU; Arts 14-20, 32(1) and 43(1) and (2) of Regulation No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council; Commission Implementing Regulation No 2017/2324)

    (See paragraphs 80, 81, 84, 85, 92, 96)

  6. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Regulatory acts entailing implementing measures — Notion — Taking into account the Member States’ discretion with regard to the implementation of the act — Not included

    (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU)

    (see paragraph 95)

Résumé

In the order Associazione GranoSalus v Commission (T‑125/18), delivered on 14 February 2019, the General Court dismissed an application seeking annulment of Implementing Regulation 2017/2324. ( 1 )

The background to the present case is the renewal by the European Commission of the approval of glyphosate, an active substance used, in particular, as a herbicide. The applicant, an association of wheat producers and consumers, together with their protection associations, asked the General Court to annul Implementing Regulation 2017/2324 and order a measure of inquiry seeking the production of the passages of the EFSA report in which the studies on the potential effects of glyphosate on human health are re-examined, in order to compare them with other documents relating to the subject at issue.

As regards, first, the question of whether the applicant could prove an interest of its own, the General Court held that as it had not mentioned playing a role in the drafting of Implementing Regulation 2017/2324 or having specific rights in the procedure which had led to the adoption of that act, the applicant did not have such an interest which would have entitled it to bring an action for annulment in its name before the General Court.

As regards, next, the locus standi of the applicant’s members, the General Court stated that, in the present case, the applicant’s members could not be regarded as the addressees of Implementing Regulation 2017/2324 because they were not mentioned in that act as its addressees. The General Court held that, as far as certain members of the applicant being allegedly individually concerned by that act in their general capacity as citizens of the EU and as consumers, that act affected the applicant’s members by reason of their objective status as consumers, citizens of the EU or wheat producers in the same way as any other consumer, citizen of the EU or wheat producer who is actually or potentially in the same situation. As regards the characterisation of Implementing Regulation 2017/2324 as a regulatory act which does not entail implementing measures, the General Court observed that the assessment of glyphosate was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the active substance is submitted to the approval of the Commission. In the second stage, each Member State authorises the placing on the market of products containing that substance. The same applies to the renewal of the approval of the substance. As a result of this procedure, the effects of Implementing Regulation 2017/2324 are felt by the renewal of marketing authorisations issued by national authorities, which constitute, therefore, implementing measures.

( 1 ) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2324 of 12 December 2017 renewing the approval of the active substance glyphosate in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market, and amending the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011, (OJ 2017 L 333, p. 10).