Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2017:357
Date: 2017-05-11
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Ninth Chamber
Subject matter: Energy
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - successful;Appeal - decision unnecessary
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber), 11 May 2017 1. Appeal — Grounds — Mistaken assessment of the facts — Inadmissibility — Review by the Court of the assessment of the facts and evidence — Possible only where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted — Legal classification of the facts — Admissibility (Art. 256(1) TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) 2. Appeal — Grounds — Inadequate statement of reasons — Reliance by the General Court on implied reasoning — Lawfulness — Conditions (Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 36 and 53, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 117) 3. Appeal — Grounds — Grounds of judgment containing an infringement of EU law — Operative part well founded for other legal reasons — Rejection (Art. 256(1) TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) 4. EU institutions — Exercise of powers — Power conferred on the Commission to adopt delegated acts — Judicial review — Scope (Art. 290 TFEU) 5. Actions for annulment — Review of legality — Criteria — Account taken only of elements of fact and law existing at the date on which the contested measure was adopted (Art. 263 TFEU) 6. EU institutions — Exercise of powers — Power conferred on the Commission to adopt delegated acts — Obligation not to modify the essential elements of the basic legislative act — Requirement to supply consumers with information reflecting the energy consumption of vacuum cleaners constituting an essential element of Directive 2010/30 — Need to provide, in the delegated act, a method of calculation making it possible to measure the energy performance in actual conditions of use (Art. 290 TFEU; Commission Regulation No 665/2013, Art. 5; European Parliament and Council Directive 2010/30, recital 5, Arts 5(b) and 10) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 30, 31) 2. See the text of the decision. (see paras 37, 38) 3. See the text of the decision. (see para. 51) 4. While in the exercise of the powers conferred on them the EU authorities have broad discretion in particular where they are called on to undertake complex assessments and evaluations, it must first be determined whether they are indeed acting within the limits of the powers given to them and, more particularly, in a case concerning a delegated power under Article 290 TFEU, it must be ascertained whether the EU authorities have exceeded the powers conferred on them by the enabling act, bearing in mind in particular that such a delegated power must in any event comply with the essential elements of the enabling act and come within the regulatory framework as defined by the basic legislative act. (see para. 53) 5. See the text of the decision. (see para. 57) 6. The possibility of delegating powers provided for in Article 290 TFEU aims to enable the legislature to concentrate on the essential elements of a piece of legislation and on the non-essential elements in respect of which it finds it appropriate to legislate, while entrusting the Commission with the task of supplementing certain non-essential elements of the legislative act adopted or amending such elements within the framework of the power delegated to it. It follows that the essential rules on the matter in question must be laid down in the basic legislation and cannot be delegated. The essential elements of basic legislation are those which, in order to be adopted, require political choices falling within the responsibilities of the EU legislature. Identifying the elements of a matter which must be categorised as essential must be based on objective factors amenable to judicial review, and requires account to be taken of the characteristics and particular features of the field concerned. As regards Directive 2010/30 on the indication by labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by energy-related products, it must be considered, in view of the general scheme of Directive 2010/30, that the requirement that the information supplied to consumers must reflect energy consumption while the machine is in use is an essential element of the directive. In that respect, the Commission was obliged, in order not to disregard an essential element of Directive 2010/30, to adopt in Delegated Regulation No 665/2013 supplementing Directive 2010/30 with regard to energy labelling of vacuum cleaners a method of calculation which makes it possible to measure the energy performance of vacuum cleaners in conditions as close as possible to actual conditions of use, requiring the vacuum cleaner’s receptacle to be filled to a certain level, having regard nevertheless to the requirements concerning the scientific validity of the results obtained and to the accuracy of the information supplied to consumers, as mentioned in particular in recital 5 and Article 5(b) of the directive. (see paras 58-63, 68)