Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2008:612
Date: 2008-11-06
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Pollution
Concepts: Environment
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment Environment – Water pollution – Directive 2006/11 – Implementation of specific programmes incorporating environmental quality standards in order to reduce pollution caused by certain dangerous substances (European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/11, Art. 6 and Annex I, List II) Article 6 of Directive 2006/11 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community, which requires Member States to subject all discharges which are liable to contain any substances in List 2 of Annex I to the directive to prior authorisation, in which emission standards are laid down, cannot be interpreted as allowing the Member States, once programmes to reduce water pollution including environmental quality standards have been adopted under that article, to introduce a declaratory scheme, in respect of facilities regarded as being low-polluting in nature, subject to a reference to those standards and a right for the administrative authority to object to the commencement of operations or to impose limits on discharges specific to the facility concerned. First, prior specific examination of each planned discharge liable to contain List II substances is necessary to implement programmes to reduce water pollution established by the Member States in accordance with Article 6(1) of that directive, under which subjecting all discharges of that nature to prior authorisation constitutes one of the means of implementing those programmes. Such an examination is also necessary to fix in each case of authorised discharge the emission standards determined on the basis of the environmental quality standards included in those programmes and intended to reduce discharges containing one or more List II substances. That examination requires, moreover, an assessment of the actual state of the waters affected which must be taken into account in determining the emission standards. Secondly, tacit authorisation cannot be compatible with the requirement to specify, in the prior authorisation, the emission standards. (see paras 27, 35, operative part)