Générations Futures v. European Commission

Reference :

No description

Complaint date :

No description

Status :

Not judged

Place of jurisdiction :

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Plaintiffs types :

Environmental NGOs

Plaintiffs names :

Générations futures

Defendants :

European Commission

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

No description

Case nature :

Administrative

Specificities :

Annulment

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

Metolachlor, Tebuconazole, Prosulfocarb, Other

Requests :

Cancellation and review of approval extensions for 5 active substances.

Name of the Court :

General Court of the European Union of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Jurisdiction level :

First instance

Summary :

On December 11, 2023, the NGO Générations Futures announced its intention to file requests for re-examination with the European Commission for the extensions of 5 active substances of particular concern used in plant protection products: S-metolachlor, tebuconazole, prosulfocarb, chlortoluron and flufenacet. The request for internal review is a mechanism available to associations under Regulation (EU) no. 2021/1767 of 06/10/21 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention to Community institutions and bodies.

According to the association, the European Commission systematically extends the approval of pesticide active substances for a period often equivalent or close to the initial approval period, and sometimes even longer, in violation of the precautionary principle. Active substances are re-approved on the pretext of a delay in independent assessments, which it is the responsibility of the industrialists applying for approval to provide to the European authorities. In particular, the NGO notes that discussions are underway at European level to ban S-metolachlor because of the unacceptable risks it poses to groundwater, even though this substance was approved for a period of almost 10 years.

Générations Futures identifies three situations in which the European Commission tends to grant "abusive approval extensions":
- When the active substance meets the "exclusion criteria set out in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) 1107/2009, i.e. harmful effects on human and animal health, or unacceptable effects on the environment";
- When the substance "leads to contamination of groundwater by metabolites at unacceptable levels";
- And when the "renewal application dossier does not meet the requirements of Regulation (EC) 283/2013 (in other words, all the data to be provided by the approval applicant are not).

Générations Futures therefore requests that the extension decisions for the five substances targeted by the European Commission be annulled and re-examined. In the absence of a response from the Commission, the NGO will take action before the General Court of the European Union to have the authorizations annulled.

In the absence of a response from the Commission, the NGO will take its case to the European courts.

Scientific references :

No scientifice reference for this case.