Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1999:15
Date: 1999-01-21
Language of the case: Portuguese
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Approximation of laws
Concepts: Environment;Defences;Costs
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the Judgmen t 
1. Environment — Assessment of the environmental impact of certain projects — Directive 
85/337 — National implementing measures, belatedly enacted, waiving the obligation to make 
an assessment in the case of consent procedures initiated before the entry into force of those 
measures but after the deadline for transposing the Directive — Not permissible 
(Council Directive 85/337, Art. 12(1)) 
2. Member States — Obligations — Failure to fulfil obligations — Justification — Not permis­
sible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
3. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Consideration of the merits by the Court — Where 
the alleged failure to fulfil obligations has no adverse consequences — Irrelevant 
(EC Treaty, Art. 169) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-150/97 
4. Procedure — Costs — Discontinuance or withdrawal justified by the conduct of the other party 
(Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 69(5)) 
1. Article 12(1) of Directive 85/337 on the 
assessment of the effects of certain public 
and private projects on the environment 
must be interpreted as not permitting a 
Member State which has transposed the 
Directive into national law after 3 July 
1988 (the deadline for transposition) to 
waive by transitional provision the obliga­
tions concerning the environmental impact 
assessment required by the Directive, in 
the case of projects in respect of which the 
consent procedure was initiated before the 
entry into force of the national legislation 
transposing the Directive, but after 3 July 
1988. 
2. 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. 
3. Failure by a Member State to fulfil an 
obligation imposed by a rule of Commu­
nity law is sufficient to constitute a breach 
of obligations; consequently, the fact that 
the failure had no adverse effects has no 
bearing on the evaluation of the merits of 
an action brought under Article 169 of the 
Treaty. 
4. Where partial withdrawal is justified by 
the conduct of the other party, and upon 
application by the withdrawing party, the 
other party is to be ordered to pay the 
costs in accordance with Article 69(5) of 
the Rules of Procedure of the Court of 
Justice. 
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