Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2015:625
Date: 2015-09-22
Language of the case: Portuguese
Subject matter: Environment
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Portugal

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 28 January 2016 1. Environment — Urban waste-water treatment — Directive 91/271 — Submission to secondary treatment of urban waste waters entering collecting systems — Obligation of Member States to collect samples over a full year for the purpose of proving the compliance of discharges with the directive — No obligation (Council Directive 91/271, as amended by Regulation No 1137/2008, Arts 1, 3, 4 and 15(1), first indent, and Annex I, points B and D) 2. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Proof of failure — Burden of proof on Commission — Production of evidence showing failure — Incumbent on Member State concerned to refute evidence (Art. 258 TFEU) 3. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Examination of the merits by the Court — Situation to be taken into consideration — Situation on expiry of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion (Art. 258 TFEU) 1. Article 4 of Directive 91/271 concerning urban waste water treatment, as amended by Regulation No 1137/2008, requires Member States to ensure that, within the periods specified in that article, the agglomerations concerned subject urban waste water entering collecting systems provided to agglomerations in accordance with Article 3 of that directive to appropriate treatment and that such discharges satisfy the requirements of Annex I.B to the directive. That obligation does not mean that the collection of samples, provided for in Annex I.D to Directive 91/271, must span a full year in order for it to be established that the systems concerned are in compliance with the requirements of Annex I.B to the directive. Where a Member State is able to submit a sample meeting the requirements set out in Annex I.B to Directive 91/271, the obligations arising under Article 4 of that directive must be deemed to be satisfied. Moreover, in order to meet the objective of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of waste water discharges, as specified in Article 1 of Directive 91/271, the obligation in Article 4 thereof — according to which discharges of urban waste waters must be subject to treatment satisfying the requirements of Annex I.B — is secured over time through the monitoring of discharges from treatment plants, as provided for in the first indent of Article 15(1) of the directive, which makes express reference to Annex I.D thereto. (see paras 39, 40, 45) 2. Although, in proceedings brought under Article 258 TFEU for failure to fulfil obligations, it is for the Commission to prove the allegation that an obligation has not been fulfilled, by placing before the Court all the information required to enable it to establish that the obligation has not been fulfilled, without the Commission being entitled to rely on any presumption, account should be taken of the fact that, where it is a question of checking that the national provisions intended to ensure effective implementation of a directive are applied correctly in practice, the Commission, which does not have investigative powers of its own in this area, is largely reliant on the information provided by complainants or by the Member State concerned. It follows, inter alia, that, where the Commission has adduced sufficient evidence to establish that the national provisions transposing a directive are not applied correctly in practice in the territory of the defendant Member State, it is for the latter to challenge in substance and in detail the information produced and the inferences drawn. (see paras 47, 48) 3. See the text of the decision. (see para. 49)