62001CC0419_EN
Opinion of the Advocate-General
Opinion of the Advocate-General
1.
In this case the Commission seeks a declaration, pursuant to Article 226 EC, that, by proceeding to identify sensitive zones only in certain regions of its territory, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 5 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment.
(2)
2.
Article 5(1) of Directive 91/271 required Member States to identify, by 31 December 1993, sensitive areas, according to criteria laid down in Annex II to the directive.
Article 5(2) required Member States to ensure that urban waste water entering collecting systems should, before discharge into those areas, be subject to treatment more stringent than that prescribed in other cases, and to do so by 31 December 1998 at the latest for all discharges from agglomerations of more than 10 000 p.e. (population equivalent).
3.
According to the Commission, it resulted from the information supplied by Spain during the pre-contentions proceedings that the Spanish State had designated the sensitive areas in the waters within its jurisdiction, but that certain autonomous communities had not done so in the waters within their jurisdiction.
In particular, while Andalusia, Galicia, Murcia and Cantabria had made the relevant designations, published them in their official journal and notified the Commission, other autonomous communities had failed to make the necessary designations.
The Commission refers in that connection to Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Valencia, Asturia, the Canaries and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
4.
In its defence Spain in effect accepts that several of those authorities have indeed not designated the sensitive zones as required by the directive, since it states that those authorities are in the process of completing the required designations.
Only in relation to Melilla and Asturia does Spain seek directly to refute the Commission's complaint:
in the case of Melilla, on the ground that the latter's authorities have no jurisdiction over the waters in question, and in the case of Asturia, that that community has no sensitive zone.
On those two points, since the Commission has not lodged a reply, it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion.
For the rest, however, the Commission's application is well founded.
Conclusion
5.
Accordingly, the Court should in my opinion:
(1)
declare that, by proceeding to identify sensitive zones only in certain regions of its territory, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 5 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment;
(2)
order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.
(1) .
(2)
OJ 1991 L 135, p. 40.