Case C-746/25 P: Appeal brought on 20 November 2025 by ClientEarth AISBL against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber, Extended Composition) delivered on 10 September 2025 in Case T-579/22, ClientEarth v Commission
Date: 2025-11-20
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU environmental policy, climate change policy, economic activity, economic instrument for the environment, environmental impact, environmental protection, organic chemical, plastics, powers of the institutions (EU), sustainable finance








C_202600166EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/166


12.1.2026






Appeal brought on 20 November 2025 by ClientEarth AISBL against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber, Extended Composition) delivered on 10 September 2025 in Case T-579/22, ClientEarth v Commission


(Case C-746/25 P)

(C/2026/166)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Appellant: ClientEarth AISBL (represented by: T. Johnston, BL, F. Logue, Solicitor)

Other parties to the proceedings: European Commission, French Republic

Form of order sought

The appellant claims that the Court should:






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set aside the judgment under appeal and grant the relief sought by ClientEarth before the General Court,










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alternatively, set aside the judgment under appeal and refer the case back to the General Court for final determination; and










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order the Commission to pay the costs of the appeal proceedings and of the proceedings before the General Court, and order the French Republic to bear its own costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the appeal, the appellant rely on four grounds of appeal.
First ground of appeal: error of law in disregarding plea as to lack of competence. By its first plea before the General Court, ClientEarth pleaded that the Commission erred in the Decision Ares(2022) 4942150 of 6 July 2022 by which the European Commission rejected the request for internal review of its Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 (1) of 4 June 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (2) (‘the Taxonomy Regulation’), because it found that it had not exceeded its competence when it made the Delegated Regulation. The General Court denatured ClientEarth’s first plea when it found that this plea did not concern the Commission’s competence but was advanced solely as an error of law. For that reason, the General Court distorted and failed to determine that plea.
Second ground of appeal: error of law as to the balancing of the requirements laid down in Article 19(1) of the Taxonomy Regulation. Each of the requirements in Article 19(1) is mandatory. The General Court erred when it approved the Commission’s approach, which is that they are not mandatory and may be traded off against one another where they conflict with one another.
Third ground of appeal: error of law as to the meaning of Article 19(1)(g) of the Taxonomy Regulation and the obligation that technical screening criteria ‘
            shall… take into account the life cycle
            ’ in relation to the manufacture of organic basic chemicals and plastics in primary form. The General Court erred in finding that: (a) the Commission could lawfully decide not to carry out a life-cycle assessment in all cases; (b) any such life-cycle assessment may be confined to the activity in question and may disregard upstream and downstream environmental impacts; and (c) there was no evidence before it that called into question the Commission’s evaluation of the life-cycle of the relevant activities.
Fourth ground of appeal: error of law as regards the obligation to make technical screening criteria relating to the need to ‘do no significant harm’ for all the environmental objectives, pursuant to Article 10(3)(b) and Article 17(1)(d) of the Taxonomy Regulation.


(1)  Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 of 4 June 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council by establishing the technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which an economic activity qualifies as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation and for determining whether that economic activity causes no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives (OJ 2021 L442, p. 1).

(2)  Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (OJ 2020 L 198, p. 13).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/166/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)