Brussels, 03/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice of the EU confirmed, on Thursday 3 September, the validity of the European regulation on trade in seal products.
The judges thus dismissed in its entirety the appeal lodged by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the main association representing the interests of Canadian Inuits, and by a number of associations and individuals (seal product manufacturers and traders of various nationalities). They had lodged an appeal with the Court of Justice against the General Court ruling of April 2013 (see EUROPE 10836) which upheld the validity of Regulation 1007/2009 which, in principle, allows seal products to be placed on the EU market only where they result from hunts which are traditionally conducted by those communities and contribute to their subsistence.
The legal basis of the regulation is valid, the Court concluded. The statement of reasons for a measure of general application may be confined to indicating the general situation which led to its adoption and the general objectives which it is intended to achieve. Thus, in this instance, the EU legislature could, correctly, confine itself to only setting out generally the divergences existing between the national rules on the marketing of seal products and the resulting adverse effect on the operation of the internal market, the judges ruled.
Additionally, the appellants pleaded only the mere possibility of being able to market seal products in the EU, and failed to specify the rights which the basic regulation is said to compromise. Finally, the EU is not required to obtain the prior consent of the Inuit communities. Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which encourages members of the United Nations to obtain the prior consent of those peoples before adopting or implementing measures that may affect them, does not, in itself, have binding legal force, the judges pointed out. (Jan Kordys)