Equipolymers Srl and Others v Council of the European Union.
Date: 2018-06-07
It must be noted that, under the second subparagraph of Article 256(1) TFEU and the first paragraph of Article 58 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, an appeal is to be limited to points of law. The General Court, consequently, has exclusive jurisdiction to find and assess the relevant facts and the evidence submitted to it. The assessment of those facts and that evidence thus do not, except when the facts or evidence are distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject as such to review by the Court of Justice in an appeal. Such a distortion must be obvious from the documents on the Court’s file, without there being any need to carry out a new assessment of the facts and the evidence (judgments of 18 March 2010, Trubowest Handel and Makarov v Council and Commission, C‑419/08 P, EU:C:2010:147, paragraphs 31 and 32, and of 26 October 2017, Global Steel Wire and Others v Commission, C‑457/16 P and C‑459/16 P to C‑461/16 P, not published, EU:C:2017:819, paragraph 25).
Consequently, contrary to the Council’s contentions, the appellants cannot be considered to be seeking from the Court of Justice, by their single ground of appeal, a new assessment of the facts and evidence. Indeed, first, they dispute that the General Court, relying solely on the factors referred to in paragraph 188 of the judgment under appeal and failing to take into account the information which they had produced in the context of the updating of the claim for damages, could have validly concluded that they had not established a causal link between the decision at issue and the damage alleged. Such a question is a question of law which may be subject to review by the Court of Justice in an appeal (see, to that effect, judgment of 16 July 2009, Commission v Schneider Electric, C‑440/07 P, EU:C:2009:459, paragraphs 192 and 193).
The question of whether the grounds of a judgment of the General Court are inadequate is also a question of law which is amenable, as such, to judicial review on appeal (see, to that effect, judgments of 9 September 2008, FIAMM and Others v Council and Commission, C‑120/06 P and C‑121/06 P, EU:C:2008:476, paragraph 90, and of 26 May 2016, Rose Vision v Commission, C‑224/15 P, EU:C:2016:358, paragraph 26).
In that connection, it must be borne in mind that, according to the settled case-law of the Court, in order for the non-contractual liability of the European Union to be capable of being engaged, the damage must flow sufficiently directly from the unlawful conduct of the institutions (see, to that effect, judgments of 18 March 2010, Trubowest Handel and Makarov v Council and Commission, C‑419/08 P, EU:C:2010:147, paragraph 53, and of 30 May 2017, Safa Nicu Sepahan v Council, C‑45/15 P, EU:C:2017:402, paragraph 61).
It is for the party seeking to establish the European Union’s non-contractual liability to adduce conclusive proof as to the existence and extent of the damage it alleges and as to the existence of a sufficiently direct causal nexus between the conduct of the EU institutions objected to and the damage alleged (see, to that effect, judgment of 30 May 2017, Safa Nicu Sepahan v Council, C‑45/15 P, EU:C:2017:402, paragraph 62 and the case-law cited).
Secondly, as regards the appellants’ submission that the General Court infringed its obligation to state reasons, it should be borne in mind that the General Court is not required to provide reasons for each of its choices where it relies on one item of evidence as opposed to another in support of its decision (judgments of 16 February 2012, Council and Commission v Interpipe Niko Tube and Interpipe NTRP, C‑191/09 P and C‑200/09 P, EU:C:2012:78, paragraph 161, and of 7 April 2016, ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Ostrava and Others v Hubei Xinyegang Steel, C‑186/14 P and C‑193/14 P, EU:C:2016:209, paragraph 40).
However, the General Court’s obligation to state reasons is intended to enable the persons concerned to know the reasons which led it to adopt the judgment in question and provide the Court of Justice with sufficient material for it to exercise its power of review (judgment of 14 March 2013, Viega v Commission, C‑276/11 P, not published, EU:C:2013:163, paragraph 44).
In that regard, it is clear from established case-law that the obligation to state reasons does not require the General Court to provide an account which follows exhaustively and one by one all the arguments put forward by the parties to the case and that the reasoning may be implicit on condition that it enables the persons concerned to know why the General Court has not upheld their arguments and provides the Court of Justice with sufficient material for it to exercise its power of review (judgments of 16 July 2009, Commission v Schneider Electric, C‑440/07 P, EU:C:2009:459, paragraph 135, and of 16 February 2012, Council and Commission v Interpipe Niko Tube and Interpipe NTRP, C‑191/09 P and C‑200/09 P, EU:C:2012:78, paragraph 105).