Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Appeals – Grounds – Distortion of the clear sense of the evidence – Findings of fact from the Court’s file substantially incorrect – Admissibility

(Art. 225 CE)

2. Appeals – Grounds – Distortion of the clear sense of the evidence – Definition – Clear misassessment of the evidence

3. Agriculture – Approximation of laws – Placing of plant protection products on the market – Directive 91/414

(Council Directive 91/414, Art. 19 and Annex I)

Summary

1. Complaints based on findings of fact and on the assessment of those facts in a judgment under appeal are admissible on appeal where the appellant submits that the Court of First Instance has made findings of fact which the documents in the file show to be substantially incorrect or that it has distorted the clear sense of the evidence before it.

(see para. 57)

2. There is distortion of the clear sense of the evidence where, without recourse to new evidence, the assessment of the existing evidence by the Court of First Instance appears to be clearly incorrect. That is the case in particular where the inferences drawn by the Court of First Instance from certain documents are not consistent with the meaning and implications of those documents read as a whole.

(see paras 60, 63)

3. As is clear from Recitals 5, 6 and 9 in the preamble thereto, Directive 91/414 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market seeks to remove barriers to intra-Community trade in those products, while maintaining a high level of protection of the environment and of human and animal health. In that context, if the Commission is to be able to pursue effectively the objective assigned to it, account being taken of the complex technical assessments which it must undertake, it must be recognised as enjoying a broad discretion.

However, the exercise of that discretion is not excluded from review by the Court. In the context of such review the Community judicature must verify whether the relevant procedural rules have been complied with, whether the facts admitted by the Commission have been accurately stated and whether there has been a manifest error of appraisal or a misuse of powers.

In particular, where a party claims that the institution competent in the matter has committed a manifest error of appraisal, the Community judicature must verify whether that institution has examined, carefully and impartially, all the relevant facts of the individual case, facts which support the conclusions reached.

(see paras 74-77)