Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Actions for annulment ° Parliament' s right to bring an action ° Conditions of admissibility ° Defence of its prerogatives ° Participation in the legislative process ° Action based on inadequacy of the statement of the reasons on which the contested measure was based ° Inadmissible ° Adverse effect resulting from modification of directives adopted on the basis of Treaty provisions requiring consultation of the Parliament ° Admissible

(EC Treaty, Arts 173 and 190)

2. Agriculture ° Common agricultural policy ° Directives ° Procedure for drawing up ° Basic directives and implementing directives ° Implementing directive adopted without consultation of the Parliament and at variance with the principles laid down by the basic directive ° Council Directive 94/43 ° Modification of the scope of the obligations of the Member States under Directive 91/414 ° Unlawful

(Council Directives 91/414, Art. 4, and 94/43)

Summary

1. The Parliament may bring an action before the Court for the annulment of an act of another institution provided that it does so in order to protect its prerogatives. That condition is satisfied where the Parliament indicates in an appropriate manner the substance of the prerogative to be safeguarded and how that prerogative is allegedly infringed.

By virtue of those criteria, an action is inadmissible to the extent to which it is founded on infringement of Article 190 of the Treaty where the Parliament, in alleging that the contested provisions are inadequately or incorrectly reasoned for the purposes of that article, fails to provide any relevant indication as to how that infringement, assuming that it has been committed, is such as to impair its own prerogatives. On the other hand, since the right to be consulted in accordance with a provision of the Treaty is a prerogative of the Parliament, the latter is entitled to bring an action against a directive provided that it alleges that the directive regarding which it was not consulted modifies the obligations imposed on the Member States by the other directives based on provisions of the Treaty which provide that the Parliament must be consulted.

2. The Council cannot be required to draw up all the details of regulations or directives concerning the common agricultural policy according to the procedure laid down in Article 43 of the Treaty. It is sufficient for the purposes of that provision that the essential elements of the matter to be dealt with have been adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down by that provision, and the provisions implementing the basic regulations or directives may be adopted according to a different procedure, as provided for by those regulations or directives. Nevertheless, an implementing directive adopted without consultation of the Parliament must respect the provisions which were incorporated in the basic directive after such consultation.

That requirement is not fulfilled by Council Directive 94/43 establishing Annex VI to the basic directive, Directive 91/414, concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market.

The basic directive, Directive 91/414, which seeks to improve agricultural production through the use of plant protection products, is also intended, by reason of the risks which the use of those products may involve for humans, animals and the environment, to introduce uniform rules on the conditions and procedures for authorization of such products. Article 4(1) of that directive thus requires the Member States to ensure that a plant protection product is not authorized unless certain conditions are fulfilled and refers in that connection to the "uniform principles" mentioned in Annex VI, the content of which must be established by the Council. Article 4(1)(b) provides that the Member States are not to authorize a plant protection product unless, in accordance with the abovementioned uniform principles, it is established that that product has no harmful effect on human or animal health, directly or indirectly, or on groundwater and has no unacceptable influence on the environment, particularly in relation to the contamination of water in general, without drawing a distinction, in that regard, between water intended for human consumption and other water.

By providing only for protection of water intended for the production of drinking water and therefore failing to take account of the effects which plant protection products may have on all groundwater, and by allowing the issue of a conditional authorization, for a period of up to ten years, for a plant protection product whose foreseeable concentration exceeds that maximum permissible concentration laid down in a measure that must be taken into account, which affects the scope of the principles defined in the basic directive, Directive 94/43 modifies, without following the legislative procedure prescribed by the Treaty, which calls for it to be consulted, the scope of the obligations imposed on the Member States by the basic directive.

It must therefore be annulled, and the fact that it is merely incomplete on one of the points relating to the principles laid down by the basic directive, and does not thereby go beyond the limits to which the implementation of those principles is subject, is not sufficient to defeat the plea that it is illegal in the light of the latter directive.