EU General Court annuls exclusion of private jet manufacturing from rules implementing EU taxonomy

In a judgment delivered on Wednesday 24 June (case T-77/24), the General Court of the European Union annulled the exclusion of the manufacture of aircraft intended for private or commercial business aviation from the so-called ‘transitional’ activities under the European rules implementing the EU taxonomy.

In France, Dassault Aviation is challenging the exclusion under Delegated Regulation 2023/2485 (see EUROPE 12392/14) implementing the taxonomy Regulation (2020/852 - see EUROPE 13200/14), on the manufacture of private jets from activities contributing, on a transitional basis, to climate change mitigation.

The taxonomy regulation lays down technical screening criteria for determining whether an economic activity contributes to achieving the EU’s six climate and environmental objectives. Transitional activities are understood to be economic activities for which no low-carbon alternative that is technologically and economically feasible exists; they do, however, support the transition to a climate-neutral economy, provided that certain criteria are met (Article 10(2)).

In its judgment, the General Court upheld the action and annulled the contested exclusion.

It noted that the European Commission had excluded the manufacture of aircraft intended for business aviation from the scope of transitional activities, based on of their CO₂ footprint per passenger-kilometre compared with that of other available means of transport.

However, according to the EU court, the European Commission could not consider that those other means of transport necessarily constitute low-carbon alternatives to business aircraft, given, in particular, their specific characteristics in terms of CO₂ emissions, flexibility, speed and connectivity.

The General Court also held that the European Commission could not base its assessment on the criterion of CO₂ footprint per passenger-kilometre, since this is not provided for in the taxonomy Regulation and relates to the operation of aircraft rather than to their manufacture.

It further noted that the EU institution had not taken into account certain relevant factors, notably the ability of those aircraft to operate on sustainable aviation fuels, and that it had itself acknowledged that further analysis was needed.

Read the General Court judgment (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/mii (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)