Luxembourg, 01/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has overturned the Council's decision of 1997 not to adopt a regulation instituting a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of ecru fabrics from China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey, because this decision was not sufficiently reasoned, it explains.
"When the Council decided not to adopt (...) definitive anti-dumping duties, it was incumbent upon it to supply a satisfactory explanation, giving its reasons in a clear and unequivocal manner why it did not (...) adopt this proposal". In other words, the Council should have explained that there was no dumping or prejudice, and therefore no Community interest in taking action, explained the Court. In this case, continued the European judges, the only reason given by the Council- in a press release and in a query to Eurocoton- was the absence of a majority in favour of the Commission's proposal to institute anti-dumping duty. The Court then considerably limited the interest in this ruling for Eurocoton and textile companies by rejecting their request for compensation at the same time (which would have been quantified if Eurocoton had obtained a Court decision that the Council was to be held responsible for their prejudice). The European judges said: "The Court has consistently held that any inadequacy in the statement of reasons for a legislative measure is not sufficient to cause the Community to incur liability". Technically, the Council should once again reason its 1997 decision (for the ruling of the Court of First Instance, which Eurocoton unsuccessfully appealed to: see EUROPE of 5 December 2000).