Order — ECLI:EU:C:2001:607
Date: 2001-11-13
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Third Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;External relations;Fruit and vegetables;Commercial policy;Bananas
Concepts: Appeals;Admissibility and examination of applications, forms of order sought and pleas in law;Bananas
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Order 
1. Procedure — Introduction of new pleas in law in the course of the proceedings — 
Conditions — New pleas — Definition — Existing plea amplified 
(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 44(1 )(c) and 48(2» 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-430/00 P 
2. Appeals — Grounds — Incorrect appraisal of the facts — Inadmissible — Whether 
the Court of Justice may review the appraisal of the evidence — Possible only where 
the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted 
(Art. 225 EC; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51) 
3. Appeals — Grounds — Plea put forward for the first time in the appeal proceed­
ings — Inadmissible 
(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51) 
4. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Bananas — Import arrange­
ments — Tariff quota — Measures intended to assist transition to the Community 
arrangements — Allocation of additional import licences — Acquired rights to have 
the quantities of bananas involved taken into account for the purposes of calculating 
the reference quantities for future years — None — Condition 
(Council Regulation No 404/93, Art. 30) 
1. It follows from Article 44(1 )(c) in con­
junction with Article 48(2) of the Rules 
of Procedure of the Court of First 
Instance that the application initiating 
proceedings must contain, inter alia, a 
summary of the pleas in law relied on, 
and that new pleas in law may not be 
introduced in the course of proceedings 
unless they are based on matters of law 
or of fact which come to light in the 
course of the procedure. However, a 
plea which may be regarded as ampli­
fying a plea put forward previously, 
whether directly or by implication, in 
the original application and which is 
closely connected therewith must be 
declared admissible. 
(see para. 17) 
2. The Court of First Instance has sole 
jurisdiction to find the facts, save 
where the factual inaccuracy of its 
findings results from the documents 
before it, and to appraise those facts. 
The appraisal of the facts does not 
constitute, save where the clear sense of 
the evidence produced before it is 
distorted, a question of law which is 
subject, as such, to review by the Court 
of Justice in an appeal. 
(see para. 24) 
3. To allow a party to raise before it a 
plea which it has not raised before the 
Court of First Instance would amount 
to allowing it to bring before the Court 
of Justice, whose jurisdiction relating 
to appeals is limited, proceedings that 
are more wide-ranging than those 
before the Court of First Instance. In 
the context of an appeal, the jurisdic­
tion of the Court of Justice is therefore 
limited to reviewing the asessment by 
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DURBECK v COMMISSION 
the Court of First Instance of the pleas 
argued before it. 
(see para. 33) 
4. The allocation of additional import 
licences under the transitional provi­
sions laid down in Article 30 of Reg­
ulation No 404/93 on the common 
organization of the market in bananas 
is subject to the condition that such 
measures are intended to assist transi­
tion from national arrangements to the 
common market organisation and that 
they are necessary for that purpose. 
Consequently, traders cannot invoke an 
acquired right to the taking into 
account of reference quantities allo­
cated in such exceptional circum­
stances for the purpose of determining, 
in accordance with the general provi­
sions of the common market organisa­
tion, the reference quantities for future 
years, since the Commission could 
properly consider that the temporary 
allocation of additional licences made 
it possible to resolve the transitional 
difficulties found to exist. 
(see para. 37) 
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