61986CC0001_EN
Opinion of the Advocate-General
Opinion of the Advocate-General
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Mr President,
Members of the Court,
1 . The Commission complains that the Kingdom of Belgium did not adopt within the prescribed time-limit the measures necessary to implement throughout its national territory Council Directive 80/68/EEC of 17 December 1979 on the protection of groundwater against pollution caused by certain dangerous substances .
2 . A decree of 24 January 1984, together with a number of orders of 22 March 1984 and 27 March 1985, implements ( as the Commission' s agent confirmed at the hearing ) the main provisions of the abovementioned directive in respect of the Flemish region .
3 . However, the agent of the Belgian Government has admitted that the measures designed to implement the provisions of Directive 80/68 in respect of the Walloon and Brussels regions are still being considered by the various competent authorities .
4 . The Belgian Government has pointed out that, as a result of the institutional reforms of 8 August 1980 transferring to the regions extensive powers in regard to the environment, the national government no longer has the necessary and sufficient powers to implement the directive whereas the establishment of the new institutions and regional administrations could only take place progressively, with the result that they were not immediately operational .
5 . It is undeniable, therefore, that the implementation of the directive in Belgium encountered exceptional difficulties . It is probably for that reason that the Commission allowed an additional four years to elapse between the date by which the directive should have been implemented ( 18 December 1981 ) and the date on which it brought its action ( 3 January 1986 ). In the meantime, one of the regions of the Kingdom of Belgium had implemented the directive .
6 . For my part, I can only refer to the settled case-law of the Court according to which "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 obligations and time-limits resulting from Community directives ". ( 1 )
7 . Consequently, I propose that the Court should :
Declare that, by failing to adopt within the prescribed period the provisions necessary in order to comply with Council Directive 80/68/EEC of 17 December 1979, the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEC Treaty;
Order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs .
(*) Translated from the French .
( 1 ) See, for a recent example, the judgment of 10 March 1987 in Case
386/85 Commission v Italy (( 1987 )) ECR, paragraph 7, and many earlier judgments .