CELEX: 62012CN0427
Language: en
Date: 2012-09-19 00:00:00
Title: Case C-427/12: Action brought on 19 September 2012 — European Commission v European Parliament, Council of the European Union

17.11.2012   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 355/12
            
         Action brought on 19 September 2012 — European Commission v European Parliament, Council of the European Union
   (Case C-427/12)
   2012/C 355/20
   Language of the case: French
   
      Parties
   
   
      Applicant: European Commission (represented by: B. Smulders, C. Zadra and E. Manhaeve, acting as Agents)
   
      Defendants: European Parliament, Council of the European Union
   
      Form of order sought
   
   
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               Annul Article 80(1) of Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products (1) insofar as it provides for the adoption of measures establishing the fees payable to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) by an implementing act under Article 291 TFEU and not by a delegated act in accordance with Article 290 TFEU;
            
         
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               Maintain the effects of the provision annulled and of all acts adopted on the basis thereof until the entry into force, within a reasonable period, of a new provision intended to replace it;
            
         
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               Order the defendants to pay the costs.
            
         In the alternative, in the event that the Court were to consider that this application for partial annulment is not admissible,
   
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               Annul that regulation in its entirety;
            
         
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               Maintain the effects of the abovementioned regulation and of all acts adopted on the basis thereof until the entry into force, within a reasonable period, of a new regulation intended to replace it;
            
         
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               Order the defendants to pay the costs.
            
         
      Pleas in law and main arguments
   
   The Commission raises a single plea in law in support of its action, alleging infringement of the Treaty and, in particular, of the system of attribution of the regulatory powers which the European Union legislature may attribute to the Commission pursuant to Article 290 and 291 TFEU.
   The Commission submits that the Council and the Parliament erred in deciding to confer on the Commission implementing powers on the basis of Article 291 TFEU in order to establish the fees payable to the European Chemicals Agency. In the Commission’s opinion, the act which it is called upon to adopt on the basis of Article 80(1) of Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 is in fact a delegated act within the meaning of Article 290 TFEU, in as much as it seeks to supplement certain non-essential elements of the legislative act. Having regard to the nature of the attribution of powers made to the Commission but also to the purpose of the act to be adopted under those powers, such an act ought therefore to be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 290 TFEU and not the procedures laid down in Article 291 TFEU.
   
      (1)  OJ 2012 L 167, p. 1.