Equipo Nizkor - Order correcting the judgment in Joined Cases C-778/21 P-REC and C-798/21 P-REC (European Commission and Others v Polisario Front).

ORDER OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber)

15 January 2025 (*)

( Rectification of judgment - Articles 154 and 159a of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice - Obvious inaccuracies - None )

In Joined Cases C-778/21 P-REC and C-798/21 P-REC,

TWO APPEALS under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 14 December 2021,

European Commission, represented initially by A. Bouquet, F. Castillo de la Torre and A. Stobiecka-Kuik, acting as Agents, and subsequently by A. Bouquet, D. Calleja Crespo and A. Stobiecka-Kuik, acting as Agents,

appellant in Case C-778/21 P,

the other parties to the proceedings being:

Front populaire pour la libération de la Saguia-el-Hamra et du Rio de oro (Front Polisario), represented by G. Devers, avocat,

applicant at first instance,

Council of the European Union,

defendant at first instance,

Kingdom of Spain, represented by A. Gavela Llopis, acting as Agent,

French Republic, represented initially by J.-L. Carré, A.-L. Desjonquères and T. Stéhelin, acting as Agents, and subsequently by G. Bain, B. Herbaut, T. Stéhelin and B. Travard, acting as Agents,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de la Méditerranée,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Nord,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Centre,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Sud,

represented by N. Angelet, G. Forwood and A. Hublet, avocats, and by N. Forwood, Barrister-at-Law,

interveners at first instance,

and

Council of the European Union, represented initially by F. Naert and V. Piessevaux, acting as Agents, and subsequently by F. Naert, A. Nowak-Salles and V. Piessevaux, acting as Agents,

appellant in Case C-798/21 P,

supported by:

Kingdom of Belgium, represented initially by J.-C. Halleux, C. Pochet and M. Van Regemorter, acting as Agents, and subsequently by C. Pochet and M. Van Regemorter, acting as Agents,

Hungary, represented by M.Z. Fehér and K. Szíjjártó, acting as Agents,

Portuguese Republic, represented by P. Barros da Costa and A. Pimenta, acting as Agents,

Slovak Republic, represented initially by B. Ricziová, acting as Agent, and subsequently by S. Ondrášiková, acting as Agent,

interveners in the appeal,

the other parties to the proceedings being:

Front populaire pour la libération de la Saguia-el-Hamra et du Rio de oro (Front Polisario), represented by G. Devers, avocat,

applicant at first instance,

Kingdom of Spain, represented by A. Gavela Llopis, acting as Agent,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de la Méditerranée,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Nord,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Centre,

Chambre des pêches maritimes de l'Atlantique Sud,

represented by N. Angelet, G. Forwood and A. Hublet, avocats, and by N. Forwood, Barrister-at-Law,

interveners at first instance,

THE COURT (Grand Chamber),

composed of K. Lenaerts, President, C. Lycourgos, I. Jarukaitis, M.L. Arastey Sahún, S. Rodin, A. Kumin, N. Jääskinen (Rapporteur) and M. Gavalec, Presidents of Chambers, A. Arabadjiev, E. Regan and Z. Csehi, Judges,

Advocate General: T. Capeta,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

after hearing the Advocate General,

makes the following

Order

1 On 4 October 2024, the Court (Grand Chamber) delivered the judgment in Commission and Council v Front Polisario (C-778/21 P and C-798/21 P, EU:C:2024:833) ('the judgment at issue').

2 By letter lodged at the Registry of the Court of Justice on 24 October 2024, supplemented by a corrigendum received at that registry on 6 November 2024, the European Commission submitted a request for rectification of paragraphs 156 and 157 of the judgment at issue pursuant to Article 154 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, applicable to appeal proceedings pursuant to Article 190(1) of those rules.

3 By letters lodged at the Court Registry on 25 and 28 October 2024 respectively, the French Republic and the Kingdom of Spain, on the basis of the same provisions, requested that the Court rectify paragraph 156 of the judgment at issue.

4 Pursuant to Article 159a of the Rules of Procedure, where a request or an application referred to in Chapter 9 of Title IV of those rules - which includes Article 154 thereof - is, in whole or in part, manifestly inadmissible or manifestly unfounded, the Court may, having heard the Judge-Rapporteur and the Advocate General, at any time decide to dismiss it, in whole or in part, by reasoned order.

5 It is appropriate to apply Article 159a of the Rules of Procedure in the present cases.

6 In support of their respective requests for rectification of paragraph 156 of the judgment at issue, the Commission, the French Republic and the Kingdom of Spain claim, in essence, that that paragraph is vitiated by an inaccuracy, inasmuch as it cannot be held that it was 'without being contradicted in that regard' that the representative of the Front populaire pour la libération de la Saguia-el-Hamra et du Rio de oro (Front Polisario) indicated, during the hearing before the Court of Justice, that, 'to date, of a total of around 500 000 Sahrawi, approximately 250 000 are living in refugee camps in Algeria, another quarter are living in the area of Western Sahara which is under Moroccan control, and the remaining quarter are living in other parts of the world'.

7 In that regard, they maintain that it is apparent from the Commission's assessment report on the benefits for the population of Western Sahara of the Sustainable Fisheries Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco and its implementation protocol and on the consultation of that population, accompanying the proposal for a decision of the Council of the European Union of 8 October 2018 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco, the implementation protocol thereto and the Exchange of Letters accompanying the agreement (SWD(2018) 433 final), to which reference is made in paragraph 149 of the judgment of 29 September 2021, Front Polisario v Council (T-344/19 and T-356/19, EU:T:2021:640), which is the judgment under appeal in the cases giving rise to the judgment at issue, that, 'while a sizeable portion of the Sahrawi population lives outside the territory of Western Sahara, a major portion does live in the territory'. However, it is apparent from that report that the Commission is not in a position to carry out a census of the population of Western Sahara. According to the information available to the Commission, such a census has, to date, never been carried out. In addition, the French Republic and the Kingdom of Spain argue that it was apparent from the Council's written pleadings, both in connection with the cases which gave rise to the judgment of 29 September 2021, Front Polisario v Council (T-344/19 and T-356/19, EU:T:2021:640), and in connection with those giving rise to the judgment at issue, that carrying out a census of the members of the people of Western Sahara and, a fortiori, identifying the proportion of those members which lives in the territory of Western Sahara and the proportion which lives outside that territory are part of a complex problem which, to date, remains unresolved and which is currently the subject of work being conducted by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso). The French Republic states that it referred to those elements during the hearing before the Court of Justice.

8 In support of its request for rectification of paragraph 157 of the judgment at issue, the Commission submits (i) that it cannot be inferred from the remarks made by its agents during that hearing that, 'according to [its] estimates …, only 25% [of the population of Western Sahara] is of Sahrawi origin', (ii) that it is apparent from the report referred to in the preceding paragraph that there is no precise census of the population of Western Sahara and that that institution is not in a position to carry out such a census, and (iii) that, following a question which was put to it during the hearing, it explicitly contested the assertion that the members of the population residing in the territory of Western Sahara which are of Sahrawi origin represent 25% of that population.

9 As a preliminary point, it should be borne in mind that, under Article 154(1) of the Rules of Procedure, obvious inaccuracies in a judgment may be rectified by the Court, inter alia, at the request of a party.

10 In the first place, as regards paragraph 156 of the judgment at issue, it is common ground that, during the hearing before the Court of Justice, Front Polisario's representative provided a rough estimate of the number of persons comprising the people of Western Sahara and of how those persons are distributed geographically across the world. As the Kingdom of Spain notes in its request for rectification, neither its representative nor the representative of another party has disputed the figures put forward as estimates by Front Polisario's representative at that hearing and reproduced in paragraph 156 of the judgment at issue.

11 In any event, it must be pointed out that the statements set out in that paragraph are not at odds with the report of 8 October 2018 referred to in paragraph 7 of the present order or, more generally, with the Council's written pleadings. Indeed, paragraph 156 of the judgment at issue, which expressly emphasises the fact that the estimates presented by Front Polisario's representative at that hearing are approximate in nature, does not in any way appear to be irreconcilable with (i) the statement that a major portion of the people of Western Sahara lives in that territory and (ii) the Council's statement that carrying out a precise census of the members of that people is part of a complex problem currently forming the subject of work conducted by the United Nations.

12 In the second place, as regards paragraph 157 of the judgment at issue, it must be observed that the Commission itself acknowledges, in its request for rectification, that it stated during the hearing before the Court of Justice that 'a quarter of the inhabitants [of Western Sahara] "could" be of Sahrawi origin', without however indicating the exact number of persons who could be regarded as being members of that people.

13 First, that paragraph faithfully reflects that statement by the Commission, because, in that paragraph, the Court uses the conditional form and refers only to estimates. In that context, the clarification given by the Commission at the hearing before the Court of Justice, in response to a question which had been put to it, that it did not intend to make a political statement in that regard cannot be understood as meaning that it intended to retract that statement. Second, in its request for rectification, the Commission gives an incorrect reading of paragraph 157 of the judgment at issue. The Commission claims that it did not state at any time during the hearing that, 'according to [its] estimates …, only 25% [of the population of Western Sahara] is of Sahrawi origin'. According to that institution, the use of such wording could - incorrectly - suggest that those estimates were made by the Commission itself. However, it is expressly stated in paragraph 157 of the judgment at issue that it is 'according to the estimates provided by the Commission at the hearing before the Court of Justice', and not according to the estimates made by the Commission itself, that only 25% of the population of Western Sahara is of Sahrawi origin. Accordingly, that paragraph indicates only that the Commission referred to the estimates in question at that hearing; by contrast, it is not possible to infer from this that the Court suggested in that paragraph that the Commission itself was the person who had made those estimates.

14 Consequently, it cannot be held that paragraphs 156 and 157 of the judgment at issue are vitiated by 'obvious inaccuracies' for the purposes of Article 154 of the Rules of Procedure.

15 It follows from all of the foregoing that, pursuant to Article 159a of the Rules of Procedure, the requests for rectification of paragraphs 156 and 157 of the judgment at issue must be dismissed as manifestly unfounded.

On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby orders:

1. The requests of the European Commission, the French Republic and the Kingdom of Spain for rectification of paragraph 156 of the judgment of 4 October 2024, Commission and Council v Front Polisario (C-778/21 P and C-798/21 P, EU:C:2024:833), are dismissed as manifestly unfounded.
2. The request of the European Commission for rectification of paragraph 157 of the judgment of 4 October 2024, Commission and Council v Front Polisario (C-778/21 P and C-798/21 P, EU:C:2024:833), is dismissed as manifestly unfounded.

[Signatures]

* Language of the case: French. [Back]

15Jan25

Order correcting the judgment in Joined Cases C-778/21 P-REC and C-798/21 P-REC (European Commission, Kingdom of Spain, French Republic and Others v Polisario Front)

[Source: Court of Justice of the European Union, Order ECLI:EU:C:2025:39, Luxemburg, 15Jan25]

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