Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1998:353
Date: 1998-07-14
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Full Court
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices;Environment;Free movement of goods;Measures having equivalent effect;Approximation of laws;Quantitative restrictions;Dominant position
Concepts: Environment;Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice;Interpretation of Community law
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Community law — Interpretation — Methods — Interpretation in the light of international 
agreements concluded by the Community 
2. Environment — Protection of the ozone layer — Regulation No 3093/94 — Scope — Prohi­
bition against using and marketing hydrochlorofluorocarbons for fire-fighting — Infringe­
ment of Articles 30 and 130r of the Treaty — None 
(EC Treaty, Arts 30 and 130r; Council Regulation No 3093/94, Art. 5) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-341/95 
3. Environment — Treaty provisions — Article 130r — Conditions for application — Review by 
Community judicature — Limits 
(EC Treaty, Art. 130r) 
4. Environment — Action to be undertaken by the Community — Adoption of measures to deal 
with a specific environmental problem — Whether permissible — Conditions 
(EC Treaty, Art. 130r et seq.) 
5. Environment — Community policy — Requirement of a high level of protection — Scope 
(EC Treaty, Art. 130r(2)) 
6. Preliminary rulings — Admissibility of questions — Question submitted without any details 
of factual and legislative context 
(EC Treaty, Art. 177) 
1. Community legislation must, so far as 
possible, be interpreted in a manner that 
is consistent with international law, in 
particular where its provisions are 
intended specifically to give effect to an 
international agreement concluded by the 
Community. 
2. Article 5 of Regulation N o 3093/94 on 
substances that deplete the ozone layer 
lays down a general prohibition on the 
use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons 
(HCFCs), which applies with effect from 
1 June 1995. Since the use of HCFCs for 
fire-fighting is not among the exceptions 
to which that prohibition is subject, the 
provision in question must be interpreted 
as entirely prohibiting the use, and there­
fore the marketing, of HCFCs for such 
purposes. 
That prohibition is not invalid under 
Article 130r of the Treaty: the Commu­
nity legislature neither committed a mani­
fest error of appraisal regarding the con­
ditions for the application of that provi­
sion nor infringed the principle of 
proportionality. By adopting a more 
severe measure that those deriving from 
its international obligations and by pro­
viding that the Commission may, in the 
light of technical progress, add to, delete 
items from or amend the list of prohib­
ited uses, the legislature, in particular, 
complied with the principle laid down in 
Article 130r(2) that a high level of protec­
tion must be provided and took account 
of the available scientific and technical 
data, as required by Article 130r(3). 
The prohibition at issue is likewise not 
invalid under Article 30 of the Treaty 
since the environmental protection which 
it pursues is an imperative requirement 
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BETTATI ν SAFETY HI-TECH 
which may limit the application of that 
provision. 
3. Article 13 Or of the Treaty, which is con­
cerned with Community environmental 
policy, sets a series of objectives, prin­
ciples and criteria which the Community 
legislature must respect in implementing 
that policy. However, in view of the need 
to strike a balance between certain of 
those objectives and principles and of the 
complexity of the implementation of 
those criteria, review by the Court must 
necessarily be limited to the question 
whether, in adopting particular rules, the 
legislature committed a manifest error of 
appraisal regarding the conditions for the 
application of Article 13 Or of the Treaty. 
4. It does not follow from the provisions of 
Title XVI of the Treaty, concerning the 
environment, that Article 130r(1) of the 
Treaty requires the legislature, whenever 
it adopts measures to preserve, protect 
and improve the environment in order to 
deal with a specific environmental prob­
lem, to adopt at the same time measures 
relating to the environment as a whole. It 
follows that Article 130r(l) authorises the 
adoption of measures relating solely to 
certain specified aspects of the environ­
ment, provided that such measures con­
tribute to the preservation, protection and 
improvement of the quality of the envi­
ronment. 
5. Whilst it is undisputed that Article 
130r(2) of the Treaty requires Commu­
nity policy in environmental matters to 
aim for a high level of protection, such a 
level of protection, to be compatible with 
that provision, does not necessarily have 
to be the highest that is technically pos­
sible. Article 130t of the Treaty authorises 
the Member States to maintain or intro­
duce more stringent protective measures. 
6. The need to provide an interpretation of 
Community law which will be of use to 
the national court makes it necessary that 
the national court define the factual and 
legal context of the questions it is asking 
or, at the very least, explain the factual 
circumstances on which those questions 
are based. Those requirements are of par­
ticular importance in certain areas, such 
as that of competition, which are charac­
terised by complex factual and legal situ­
ations. 
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