The General Court of the European Union annulled, on Wednesday 12 May, a decision of the European Commission refusing to register a proposed European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) on EU trade policy on the grounds that the refusal was not sufficiently reasoned (Case T-789/19).
Introduced by Mr Tom Moerenhout and six other citizens, the ECI aimed at the adoption of legal acts to prevent EU legal entities from both importing products originating from illegal settlements in occupied territories and exporting products to these territories.
However, on 4 September 2019, the Commission refused to register the ECI proposal.
In its view, the legal acts requested could only be adopted on the basis of Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), which requires the prior adoption of a decision providing for the interruption or reduction of economic and financial relations with the third country concerned. However, the Commission “is not empowered to present a proposal for a decision in this sense”, stresses the document of 4 September.
In today’s judgment, the General Court notes that the Commission did not explain why it considered that the measure referred to in the proposed ECI should be categorised as an act providing for the interruption or reduction of trade relations with one or several third countries within the meaning of Article 215 TFEU.
Furthermore, the proposed ECI referred explicitly and repeatedly to the common commercial policy and to Article 207 TFEU on this subject. In the General Court’s view, the Commission should therefore have explained the reasons which led it to conclude that the measure covered by the proposed ECI did not fall within the scope of the common commercial policy and could not, therefore, be adopted on the basis of Article 207 rather than Article 215.
Emphasising that the Commission should have “made clear the reasons for refusing to register the ECI proposal”, the General Court finally annulled the refusal decision of 4 September.
See the General Court’s judgment (in French): https://bit.ly/2RcRwdA
See the Commission’s decision: https://bit.ly/3hhABkJ (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)