Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:73
Date: 1998-02-19
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Free movement of goods;Measures having equivalent effect;Quantitative restrictions;Plant health legislation
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Approximation of Uws — Phang plant protection products on the market — 
Directive 91/414 — Pesticides — Prior authorisation for plaang on the market 
(Council Directive 91/414, Arts 4 and 8) 
2. Free movement of goods — Quantitative restrictions — Measures having equivalent effect — 
National legislation prohibiting biocidal products from being placed on the market without 
prior authorisation — Justification — Protection of public health — Conditions 
(EC Treaty, Arts 30 and 36) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-400/96 
1. Directive 91/414 concerning the placing of 
plant protection products on the market 
requires prior authorisation, granted pur­
suant to either Article 4 or Article 8, to be 
obtained from the competent authority of 
each Member State in which a pesticide 
covered by that directive is placed on the 
market. 
2. National legislation which prohibits a bio-
cidal product not previously authorised 
by the competent authority from being 
placed on the market constitutes a measure 
having an effect equivalent to a quantita­
tive restriction within the meaning of 
Article 30 of the Treaty which is justified 
under Article 36, even if that product has 
already been authorised in another Member 
State, provided that technical or chemical 
analyses or laboratory tests are not unnec­
essarily required when the same analyses 
and tests have already been carried out in 
that other Member State and their results 
are available to the competent authorities 
of the importing Member State or can, at 
their request, be made available to them. 
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