Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2012:743
Date: 2012-11-22
Language of the case: English
Subject matter: Environment
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Ireland

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 11 April 2013 1. Environment — Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora — Directive 92/43 — Special areas of conservation — Sites, included in national lists, eligible for identification as sites of Community importance — Protective measures — Obligation of the Member States to safeguard their ecological interest (Council Directive 92/43, Arts 4(1) and 6(2) to (4)) 2. Environment — Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora — Directive 92/43 — Special areas of conservation — Obligations of the Member States — Assessment of a project’s implications for a site — Authorisation for a plan or project on a protected site — Condition — No adverse effect on the integrity of the site — Concept of adversely affecting the integrity of the site (Council Directive 92/43, Art. 6(3)) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 22, 23) 2. Article 6(3) of Directive 92/43 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora must be interpreted as meaning that a plan or project not directly connected with or necessary to the management of a site will adversely affect the integrity of that site if it is liable to prevent the lasting preservation of the constitutive characteristics of the site that are connected to the presence of a priority natural habitat whose conservation was the objective justifying the designation of the site in the list of sites of Community importance, in accordance with the directive. The precautionary principle should be applied for the purposes of that appraisal. More specifically, authorisation for a plan or project, as referred to in that provision, may be given only on condition that the competent authorities are certain that the plan or project will not have lasting adverse effects on the integrity of the site. That is so where no reasonable scientific doubt remains as to the absence of such effects. However, the competent national authorities cannot authorise an intervention where there is a risk that it will bring about the disappearance or the partial and irreparable destruction of a priority natural habitat type present on the site concerned. (see paras 39, 40, 43, 48, operative part)