Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Subject-matter of the dispute - Delimited in the course of the pre-litigation procedure - Whether the subject-matter may subsequently be narrowed - Permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC))

2 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Pre-litigation procedure - Letter of formal notice - Delimitation of the subject-matter of proceedings - Reasoned opinion - May set out the complaints in detail

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC))

3 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Subject-matter of the dispute - Delimited in the course of the pre-litigation procedure - Whether the subject-matter may be adjusted because of an amendment to Community law - Permissible - Conditions

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC))

4 Environment - Disposal of waste - Directive 75/442 - Article 4, first paragraph - Obligation on Member States to ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of - Scope - Assessment of the need for measures - Discretion - Limits

(Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, Art. 4(1))

5 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Proof of infringement - Evidentiary burden on the Commission - Where evidence is produced indicative of infringement - Onus on the Member State to refute such evidence

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC))

6 Member States - Obligations - Supervisory role of the Commission - Duty of Member States - Cooperation in investigations into alleged infringements by Member States

(EC Treaty, Arts 5 and 169 (now Arts 10 EC and 226 EC))

7 Environment - Disposal of waste - Directive 75/442 - Obligations incumbent on Member States in relation to operators holding waste - Failure to take proper measures vis-à-vis illegal tips - Constitutes failure to fulfil obligations

(Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, Art. 8))

Summary

1 The letter of formal notice from the Commission to the Member State and, subsequently, the reasoned opinion issued by the Commission under Article 169 of the Treaty (now Article 226 EC) delimit the subject-matter of the dispute, so that it cannot thereafter be extended. Consequently, the reasoned opinion and the proceedings brought by the Commission must be based on the same complaints as those set out in the letter of formal notice initiating the pre-litigation procedure.

However, that requirement cannot be carried so far as to mean that in every case the statement of complaints in the letter of formal notice, the operative part of the reasoned opinion and the form of order sought in the application must be exactly the same, where the subject-matter of the proceedings has not been extended or altered but simply limited.

2 Although the reasoned opinion provided for in Article 169 of the Treaty (now Article 226 EC) must contain a coherent and detailed statement of the reasons which led the Commission to conclude that the State in question has failed to fulfil one of its obligations under the Treaty, the letter of formal notice cannot be subject to such strict requirements of precision, since it cannot, of necessity, contain anything more than an initial brief summary of the complaints. There is therefore nothing to prevent the Commission from setting out in detail in the reasoned opinion the complaints which it has already made more generally in the letter of formal notice.

3 In infringement proceedings, although the claims as stated in the application cannot in principle be extended beyond the infringements alleged in the operative part of the reasoned opinion and in the letter of formal notice, it is none the less true that, where Community law is amended during the course of the pre-litigation procedure, the Commission has standing to seek a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil obligations which were created in the initial version of a directive, subsequently amended or repealed, and which were maintained in force under the new provisions. Conversely, the subject-matter of the dispute cannot be extended to obligations arising under the amended directive which do not correspond to those arising under the initial version of the directive, as otherwise it would constitute a breach of the essential procedural requirements of infringement proceedings.

4 Although the first paragraph of Article 4 of Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, does not specify the actual content of the measures which must be taken by Member States in order to ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods likely to harm the environment, it is none the less true that it is binding on the Member States as to the objective to be achieved, whilst leaving to the Member States a margin of discretion in assessing the need for such measures.

Consequently, it cannot in principle be inferred directly from the fact that a situation is not in conformity with the objectives laid down in the first paragraph of Article 4 of Directive 75/442, as amended, that the Member State concerned has failed to fulfil its obligation under that provision. However, if that situation persists and, in particular, if it leads to a significant deterioration in the environment over a protracted period without any action being taken by the competent authorities, it may be an indication that the Member States have exceeded the discretion conferred on them by that provision.

5 In infringement proceedings, it is incumbent upon the Commission to prove the allegation that the obligation has not been fulfilled, but in cases where it has produced sufficient evidence of the infringement alleged, it is for the Member State in question to challenge in substance and in detail the data produced and the inferences drawn, failing which the allegations must be regarded as proven.

6 In the context of the investigations in which the Commission seeks to establish whether or not Community law has been infringed, it is primarily for the national authorities to conduct the necessary on-the-spot investigations, in a spirit of genuine cooperation and in accordance with the duty, incumbent on each Member State under Article 5 of the Treaty (now Article 10 EC), to facilitate attainment of the general task of the Commission, which is to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty, as well as provisions adopted thereunder by the institutions, are applied.

7 Article 8 of Directive 75/442 on waste, as amended by Directive 91/156, places Member States under an obligation to take the steps necessary to ensure that waste is handed over to a private or public waste collector or a waste-disposal undertaking, where it is not possible for the operator holding the waste to recover the waste or to dispose of it. Thus, where a Member State has merely ordered sequestration of an illegal tip and prosecution of the operator of that tip (who, on receiving consignments of waste, becomes the holder of that waste), it fails to fulfil the specific obligation imposed on it by the above provision.