Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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))

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 proceedings - Inadmissible

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51)

4. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Bananas - Import arrangements - 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)

Summary

1. It follows from Article 44(1)(c) in conjunction 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 amplifying 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 jurisdiction of the Court of Justice is therefore limited to reviewing the asessment by the Court of First Instance of the pleas argued before it.

( see para. 33 )

4. The allocation of additional import licences under the transitional provisions laid down in Article 30 of Regulation No 404/93 on the common organization of the market in bananas is subject to the condition that such measures are intended to assist transition from national arrangements to the common market organization and that they are necessary for that purpose. Consequently, traders cannot invoke an acquired right to the taking into account of reference quantities allocated in such exceptional circumstances for the purpose of determining, in accordance with the general provisions of the common market organization, 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 )