Case T-380/06

Vischim Srl

v

Commission of the European Communities

(Plant protection products – Active substance chlorothalonil – Amendment of the entry in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC – Directive 2006/76/EC – Retroactivity – No transitional period – Legal certainty – Legitimate expectations – Principle of equal treatment)

Summary of the Judgment

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

(Commission Regulation No 3600/92, Art. 8(3)(a); Council Directive 91/414, Art. 8(2))

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

(Council Directive 91/414)

1.      In not prescribing a transitional period for the purpose of review of existing national authorisations, following an amendment of the entry for an active substance in Annex I to Directive 91/414 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market, the Commission infringes neither Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414 nor Article 8(3)(a) of Regulation No 3600/92 laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of the first stage of the programme of work referred to in Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414 and does not depart from its previous practice.

(see para. 80)

2.      The retroactive application of a new, less strict, specification, introduced in amending the entry for an active substance in Annex I to Directive 91/414 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market, does not infringe the principles of legal certainty and of the protection of legitimate expectations.

The principle of legal certainty precludes a Community measure from taking effect from a point in time before its publication, save exceptionally where the purpose to be achieved so demands and where the legitimate expectations of those concerned are duly respected.

As regards the first condition, in providing that the amended specification for the active substance chlorothalonil, brought about by Directive 2006/76 amending Directive 91/414, is to have retroactive effect, the Commission intends to prevent the Member States from being required to apply, even if only very briefly, the stricter specification prescribed by Directive 2005/53. It is therefore clear that the purpose to be achieved demands that the Commission provide for retroactive application of the new, less strict, specification.

As regards the second condition, since the amended specification laid down has the effect solely of making the conditions upon which chlorothalonil is included less exacting, its retroactive effect, as such, is not capable of interfering with the legitimate expectations of the economic operators concerned. Inasmuch as an applicant is himself at the origin of an amendment which reduces the requirements for authorisation of his products, it cannot be contrary to the principles of legal certainty and of the protection of legitimate expectations not to prescribe a transitional period in order to enable him to adapt to the new requirements.

(see paras 82, 86-88, 91, 99)