Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1999:19
Date: 1999-01-21
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Approximation of laws;Pollution
Concepts: Environment;Defences
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgmen t 
1. Member States — Obligations — Implementation of directives — Failure to fulfil obligations 
— Justification — Not permissible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
2. Approximation of laws — Batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances 
— Directive 91/157 — Obligation on Member States to draw up specific programmes to 
achieve certain objectives — Scope 
(Council Directive 91/157, Art. 6) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-347/97 
1. A Member State may not plead provisions, 
practices or circumstances existing in its 
internal legal system in order to justify a 
failure to comply with the obligations and 
time-limits laid down in a directive. 
2. Article 6 of Directive 91/157 on batteries 
and accumulators containing certain dan­
gerous substances requires Member States, 
in order to achieve its objectives, to draw 
up programmes and then to review them 
and update them regularly. 
It is important that the Member States 
under such an obligation notify the Com­
mission of the measures which they intend 
to adopt or carry out in the sectors con­
cerned. It is only in the light of such spe­
cific figures and timetables that the Com­
mission can then assess whether the 
measures envisaged in pursuance of the 
Directive actually contribute to imple­
menting the programmes designed to attain 
its objectives. 
It follows from the wording of Article 6 
and from the general scheme of the Direc­
tive that the various problems posed by 
specific waste such as batteries and accu­
mulators are to be resolved in accordance 
with a precise timetable. Even if certain 
results relating to the objectives of the 
Directive have been achieved before the 
deadline prescribed for the implementa­
tion of programmes, Member States are 
not thereby excused from drawing up the 
programmes required. 
Positive measures in relation to the objec­
tives referred to in the first paragraph of 
Article 6, which constitute no more than 
a series of legislative provisions or ad hoc 
measures and which do not possess the 
characteristics of an organised and coor­
dinated system of objectives, cannot be 
regarded as programmes within the 
meaning of that provision. 
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