Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1999:546
Date: 1999-11-11
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Approximation of laws;Pollution
Concepts: Environment
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Environment — Water pollution — Directive 76/464 — Obligation to establish 
specific programmes to reduce the pollution caused by certain dangerous substances — 
Scope — Need to establish programmes and quality objectives 
(Council Directive 76/464, Arts 6 and 7, and Annex, Lists I and II) 
2. Environment — Water pollution — Directive 76/464 — Obligation to establish 
specific programmes to reduce the pollution caused by certain dangerous substances — 
Meaning of 'programme' 
(Council Directive 76/464, Art. 7) 
I - 7837 
SUMMARY — CASE C-184/97 
3. Environment — Water pollution — Directive 76/464 — Obligation to establish 
specific programmes to reduce the pollution caused by certain dangerous substances — 
Waters affected — Meaning 
(Council Directive 76/464, Art. 7(1)) 
1. Substances mentioned in List I of 
Directive 76/464 on pollution caused 
by certain dangerous substances dis­
charged into the aquatic environment 
of the Community, in respect of which 
the Council has not yet determined 
emission limit values, as provided for 
in Article 6 of the Directive, must be 
provisionally treated as List II sub­
stances governed by Article 7 of the 
Directive. Under that provision Mem­
ber States are required, inter alia, to 
adopt programmes which include both 
water quality objectives and a require­
ment that any discharge of List II 
substances be subject to prior author­
isation specifying emission standards 
calculated on the basis of those quality 
objectives. 
Accordingly, the specification by a 
Member State of limit values for emis­
sions of List II substances is not 
sufficient to exempt that Member State 
from drawing up the programmes pro­
vided for in Article 7 of the Directive. 
Failure by a Member State to draw up 
such programmes may undermine the 
comparative examination for the pur­
poses of harmonising the different rules 
governing water protection in the 
Member States, thus preventing full 
implementation of the Directive. 
As regards the need to respect quality 
objectives, although Article 6(2) of the 
Directive requires the Council to lay 
down the quality objectives for List I 
substances, Article 7(3) of the Directive 
imposes the same obligation on Mem­
ber States with regard to List II sub­
stances. The Community legislature 
therefore attaches particular impor­
tance to the laying down of quality 
objectives for all the substances refer­
red to in the Directive. 
In view of the need to draw up 
programmes and quality objectives, 
the fact that the result sought by the 
Directive may be attained by an 
improvement in water quality does 
not dispense a Member State from its 
obligation to adopt the measures pro­
vided for in Article 7 of the Directive. 
2. The programmes to be drawn up by 
Member States under Article 7 of 
I - 7838 
COMMISSION V GERMANY 
Directive 76/464 must be specific, that 
is to say, they must embody a compre­
hensive and coherent approach, cover­
ing the entire national territory and 
providing practical and coordinated 
arrangements for the reduction of pol­
lution caused by any of the substances 
in List II which are relevant in the 
particular context of the Member State 
concerned, in accordance with the 
quality objectives fixed by those pro­
grammes for the waters affected. 
Consequently, neither general rules nor 
ad hoc measures adopted by a Member 
State which, though comprising a wide 
range of water-protection standards, 
none the less do not lay down quality 
objectives relating to a given water­
course or area of water can be deemed 
to constitute a programme within the 
meaning of Article 7 of the Directive. 
3. Since the purpose of the programmes 
referred to in Article 7(1) of Directive 
76/464 is to reduce water pollution, the 
requirement to draw up those pro­
grammes extends to waters affected 
by discharges of substances or energy 
coming within the definition of 'pollu­
tion' in Article l(2)(e) of the Directive. 
Thus, under the Directive, the obliga­
tion on Member States to draw up 
programmes including quality objec­
tives is conditional not upon a finding 
of actual water pollution caused by List 
II substances (governed by Article 7 of 
the Directive) but upon discharges of 
those substances into the aquatic envir­
onment. 
I - 7839