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CJEU judgment in Case C-144/21 Parliament v Commission
On 20 April 2023, the Court of Justice of the EU issued its judgment in Case C-144/21 European Parliament v European Commission. The case concerned an action brought by the Parliament for the annulment of the Commission's Implementing Decision of 18 December 2020
granting authorisation of certain uses of chromium trioxide (the original CTAC authorisation).
As expected, the Court annulled the authorisation decision, but maintained the effects of the decision until the Commission issues a replacement decision. This will very likely be a rejection of the authorisation, as directed by the Court in the present judgment.
The judgment followed the Opinion of the Advocate General of 27 October 2022, and is based on the following factors:
- Lack of representativeness, reliability and completeness of the submitted worker exposure data, leading to an insufficient risk assessment, based on which the Commission was not in a position to conclude that the socio-economic benefits of the uses in question outweighed their risks to human health.
- Failure by the Commission to ascertain that there were no suitable alternatives for the uses in question.
The Court also considered that the conditions had to be met at the time the decision was adopted. This meant that the Commission could not remedy the lack of sufficient data by providing the obligation for applicants for authorisation to provide additional information in the review reports, such as exposure scenarios and related risk management measures, which were lacking in the risk assessment.
However, the Court also stipulated that the effects are to be maintained for only one year from the date of the judgment,
which means in practice that the Commission only has until 20 April 2024 to issue its replacement decision.
This limit was unexpected; it was not included in the AG's opinion, but has likely been included in order to emphasise the seriousness of the above-described issues with the annulled authorisation, and ensure that these are remedied in future applications, whilst pushing the Commission to take corrective action as soon as possible via the replacement decision.
Other news items:
ADCR has developed a concise document presenting the main aspects of the 21 Dossiers submitted in EU and UK. The Factual Communication summarises the content of the dossiers, and provides information on the Chemical Safety Report, Analysis of Alternatives, research/substitution plans and the Socioeconomic analysis. Key facts are provided in bullet points and the timeline of upcoming authorisation decisions is provided. Authorisations are needed to ensure the continued availability and operation of A&D products in the EEA, since Cr(VI) is still required for manufacture, maintenance, repair and overhaul across the sector. Viable alternatives for every impacted part and process, where Cr(VI) is currently necessary, are not yet available, despite ongoing efforts. ADCR Factual Communication (pdf, 16 July 2024)