Action brought on 14 February 2024 – Dassault aviation v Commission
(Case T-77/24)
Language of the case: French
Parties
Applicant: Dassault aviation (Paris, France) (represented by: E. Mignon, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission
Form of order sought
The applicant claims that the Court should:
declare the action for annulment admissible and well founded;
annul Section 3.21 of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139, 1 inserted by point 2 of Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2485 2 of 27 June 2023 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 establishing additional technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which certain economic activities qualify as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation and for determining whether those activities cause no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives;
order the European Commission to pay all the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
In support of the action, the applicant relies on six pleas in law.
First plea in law, alleging that the Commission lacked competence to introduce Section 3.21 of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139, inserted by point 2 of Annex I to the contested regulation. The applicant claims that Delegated Regulation 2023/2485 was adopted on the basis of a basic regulation (Regulation 2020/852 of 18 June 2020, known as ‘the Taxonomy Regulation’), which could not delegate to the Commission the power to include or exclude entire sections of the economy from the taxonomy.
Second plea in law, alleging infringement of essential procedural requirements, which can be divided into two parts, in that, first, the Commission did not gather ‘all necessary expertise’ before adopting Delegated Regulation 2023/2485 and, second, the contested regulation is devoid of any statement of reasons as regards the exclusion of the manufacture of business aircraft from the taxonomy.
Third plea in law, alleging breach of the principle of legal certainty by reason of the failure to provide a definition of business aviation in Delegated Regulation 2023/2485.
Fourth plea in law, alleging that Delegated Regulation 2023/2485 failed to take into account Article 19 of the Taxonomy Regulation, which sets out the principles that must guide the drafting of the technical screening criteria.
Fifth plea in law, alleging a manifest error of assessment in that the European Commission did not take into account all of the relevant facts in order to justify its decision.
Sixth plea in law, alleging infringement of the principle of equality in that Delegated Regulation 2023/2485 treats manufacturers of business aircraft differently and unfairly as compared to manufacturers of other aircraft.
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1 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 of 4 June 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2020/852 by establishing the technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which an economic activity qualifies as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation and for determining whether that economic activity causes no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives (OJ 2021 L 442, p. 1).
1 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2485 of 27 June 2023 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 establishing additional technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which certain economic activities qualify as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation and for determining whether those activities cause no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives (OJ L 2023/2485).