Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:69
Date: 2002-01-31
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Waste;Pollution
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — 
Diversity of the means by which the prescribed result may be achieved — Effect on a 
finding that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations 
(Art. 249 EC, third para.) 
2. Environment — Air pollution — Municipal waste incineration plants — Directives 
89/369 and 89/429 — Implementation by the Member States — Obligation to 
achieve a certain result 
(Council Directives 89/369 and 89/429) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-60/01 
3. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Examination of merits by the Court — 
Situation to be taken into consideration — Situation at the end of the period laid down 
in the reasoned opinion 
(Art. 226 EC) 
1. One of the principal characteristics of 
directives is precisely that they are 
intended to achieve a specified result. 
However, Community legislative prac­
tice shows that there may be great 
differences in the types of obligations 
which directives impose on the 
Member States and therefore in the 
results which must be achieved. 
Accordingly, given that a failure to 
fulfil obligations can be found only if 
there is, on expiry of the period laid 
down in the reasoned opinion, a situ­
ation contrary to Community law 
which is objectively attributable to the 
Member State concerned, a finding 
that the failure at issue has occurred 
depends on the type of obligations 
imposed by the provisions of the direc­
tive in question. 
(see paras 24-25, 29) 
2. Directive 89/369 on the prevention of 
air pollution from new municipal 
waste incineration plants and Directive 
89/429 on the reduction of air pollu­
tion from existing municipal waste 
incineration plants form part of an 
overall Community strategy to protect 
the environment and reduce air pollu­
tion. Incineration plants were already 
covered by Directive 84/360 on the 
combating of air pollution from indus­
trial plants, under which the Member 
States were obliged to prescribe prior 
authorisation procedures and regular 
checks for their operation and grad­
ually to adapt existing plants to the 
best available technology. Directives 
89/369 and 89/429 supplemented that 
legislation by introducing detailed and 
precise requirements applicable to both 
new and existing municipal waste 
incineration plants. It follows that 
Directives 89/369 and 89/429 impose 
on the Member States obligations, 
formulated in clear and unequivocal 
terms, to achieve a certain result, in 
order that their incineration plants 
meet detailed and precise requirements 
within the stated time-limits. In those 
circumstances, it is not therefore suffi­
cient for a Member State to take all 
reasonably practicable measures to 
achieve the result imposed by Direc­
tives 89/369 and 89/249. 
(see paras 30, 33-34) 
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COMMISSION v FRANCE 
3. In the context of an action brought 
under Article 226 EC, the question 
whether a Member State has failed to 
fulfil its obligations must be deter­
mined by reference to the situation 
prevailing at the end of the period laid 
down in the reasoned opinion, and 
subsequent changes cannot be taken 
into account by the Court. 
(see para. 36) 
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