Fourth plea in law, alleging that the defendant infringed fundamental the right to property provided for in Article 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 1 of the Protocol No 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in an unjustified and disproportionate manner without compelling evidence.

Although it is accepted that failure to comply with the rules on the time-limits for complaints and appeals cannot lead to the dismissal of an application as inadmissible in cases where that failure is due to an excusable error on the part of the official, the concept of excusable error may, however, relate only to exceptional circumstances, in particular where the conduct of the institution has been, either alone or to a decisive extent, such as to give rise to pardonable confusion in the mind of a party acting in good faith and exercising all the diligence required of a normally experienced person.

You cannot make challenges like that without being absolutely specific and bringing forward absolutely crucial, concrete-based evidence.

Similarly, the degree of corroboration from other sources required for the evidence submitted to be relied upon against other undertakings involved in the case will have an impact on the value of that evidence, so that compelling evidence will be attributed a greater value than evidence such as statements which require corroboration if contested.

If we want the European Food Authority to be as effective as possible, it will have to be completely independent, its composition will be a determining factor, and its decisions will have to be highly transparent.

The second is cohesion and obtaining globalisation opportunities to strengthen the social fabric and modernise the economic fabric of the Union. The third relates to external policy and the common European security and defence policy. On this third point we had the opportunity yesterday to debate the proposals with the Presidency and in particular the issues which will be on the agenda at Feira. However, I cannot resist expressing our delight not only at the concrete steps taken in this area in terms of defence and security but also at the political visibility which this Presidency has had in cooperation with the Secretary-General of the ...[+++] Council and the Commission. It has achieved this by contributing to the resolution of regional conflicts and particularly by ensuring that there is not just one regional conflict mediator available in the world, namely the United States of America, but that Europe can also assume what is one of its main historic vocations and one of the decisive factors in the European project.