Action brought on 11 December 2023 – PAN Europe v Commission

(Case T-1164/23)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: P. Iorio, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

declare the present action admissible and well-founded;

annul the Commission’s Decision Ares(2023)6685163, dated 3 October 2023, rejecting the applicant’s request for internal review regarding Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/515, ¹ insofar as it renews the approval of active substance ‘abamectin’ for a period of 15 years (‘the contested decision’);

order the Commission to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Plea in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on a single plea in law.

Plea in law, alleging an infringement by the contested decision of the precautionary principle, of disrespecting current scientific and technical insights and of the Union’s obligation to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment, as set out in Articles 9, 11, 168(1) and 191(1) TFEU and Articles 35 and 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and as embodied, as far as plant protection products are concerned, in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, ¹ and in particular Article 4.

The applicant claims that the infringement arises from the findings on toxicity reflected by a failure to address a critical area of concern expressed by the European Food Safety Authority through an abusive reasoning on greenhouses as a ‘closed place’, in particular:

the failure to request, in the frame of the approval procedure, data on fate and distribution of the substance abamectin and its metabolites on the environmental specific circumstances in permanent greenhouses;

the failure to request, in the frame of the approval procedure, data on efficacy;

the failure to realise a proper risk assessment in the absence of data on fate and distribution and exposure data for non-target organisms;

the inconsistencies in the contested decision on permanent greenhouses being, according to the Commission, simultaneously an open place and a place without emissions;

the failure to implement the precautionary principle for the risk on aneugenicity, as well as the acceptance of an important number of data gaps.

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¹ Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/515 of 8 March 2023 renewing the approval of the active substance abamectin in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 (OJ 2023 L 71, p. 22).

¹ Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC (OJ 2009 L 309, p. 1).