Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2009:773
Date: 2009-12-10
Language of the case: Spanish
Subject matter: Environment
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment Environment – Control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances – Directive 96/82 (Council Directive 96/82, Art. 11(1)(c)) The drawing-up of external emergency plans, referred to in Article 11(1)(c) of Directive 96/82, on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, forms part of a several-stage process involving, first, the drawing‑up of internal emergency plans by the operators of establishments where dangerous substances are present in significant quantities and the supply of the necessary information to the competent authorities, second, the drawing‑up of external emergency plans by those authorities and, third, the review and, where necessary, the revision and updating of the internal and external emergency plans by the operators and the competent authorities respectively. Admittedly, Article 11(1) and (4) of Directive 96/82 lays down time-limits only for the first and third of those stages. However, the absence in that provision of a specific time-limit for drawing up external emergency plans does not in itself mean that there is no period within which the Member States are required to comply with the obligation to draw up those plans. It follows from the interdependence between the internal and external emergency plans, the coordination of which ensures that the mechanism laid down in Article 11 of Directive 96/82 is effective, that the competent authorities are required to draw up the external emergency plans within a period which is not likely to jeopardise the effectiveness of the provisions of Article 11, while taking account of the time needed to finalise those plans, and thus within a reasonable period from when the necessary information is supplied by the operators. Moreover, although, under Article 11(1) of Directive 96/82, the obligation to draw up external emergency plans is linked to that requiring the operators of the establishments concerned to communicate the necessary information to the competent authorities to enable them to draw up those plans, the fact remains that that provision requires the Member States to ensure that the operators supply the information necessary within the periods prescribed. In those circumstances, the fact that the competent authorities do not have the information necessary within those periods cannot justify the absence of external emergency plans. (see paras 13-14, 17, 21, 25)