Agir pour l’environnement et al. v. French State

450155, 450287, 450932, 450933, 451271, 451272 ...
February 25, 2021
Final judgment
France, Paris

Environmental NGOs, Beekeepers/Honey Producers, Unions
Agir pour l'environnement, Confédération paysanne, Fédération Nature et progrès, CRIIGEN, Terre d’abeille, Syndicat national d’apiculture, à l'association Générations futures, France nature environnement, Justice pesticides, Pollinis, Alerte des médecins sur les pesticides, Union nationale de l’apiculture française, Fédération française des apiculteurs professionnels
Ministère de la transition écologique et solidaire (environment), Minister of Agriculture
François Lafforgue

Administrative
Appeal for excess of power
, Neonicotinoid, Cruiser, Gaucho, Imidacloprid, Thiamethoxam
To cancel the ministerial decrees of February 5, 2021 and January 31, 2022 temporarily authorizing the use of sugar beet seeds treated with plant protection products containing the active substances imidacloprid or thiamethoxam
Council of State of Paris, France
No description

May 3, 2023
Positive
The decrees are cancelled.

The Council of State cancelled in a judgment of May 3, 2023 the orders of February 5, 2021 and January 31, 2022 of the Minister of Agriculture and Food and the Minister of Ecological Transition authorizing on a derogatory and provisional basis the use of sugar beet seeds treated with plant protection products containing the active substances imidacloprid or thiamethoxam.

To do so, the Council of State applies the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-162/21) of January 19, 2023, ruling that the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 53 of Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009 of October 21, 2009 must be interpreted as not allowing a Member State to authorize the placing on the market of plant protection products for seed treatment, and the placing on the market and use of seeds treated with those products, where the placing on the market and use of seeds treated with those products have been expressly prohibited by an implementing regulation.

In the present case, two implementing regulations (EU) 2018/783 and (EU) 2018/785 of 29 May 2018, prohibited the placing on the market and use of seeds treated with these two active substances, except for the purpose of cultivation in permanent greenhouses, throughout their life cycle, so that the resulting crop is not replanted outdoors. Thus, since the beet crops were not intended to remain in greenhouses throughout their life cycle, the Minister of Agriculture and Food and the Minister of Ecological Transition could not legally rely on the provisions of Article 53 of Regulation (EU) No 1107/2009 to authorize the use of sugar beet seeds treated with products containing imidacloprid or thiamethoxam. The use of these active substances for crops in permanent greenhouses is the only exception to the regulations banning imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. The Council of State confined itself to this argument and did not rule on the other arguments put forward by the associations.