Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions - Measures having equivalent effect - System for the collection and receipt of non-hazardous building waste destined for recovery authorising a limited number of undertakings to process the waste produced in a municipality - Obstacle to the export of waste - Justification - Article 36 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 30 EC) - Environmental protection - Absence

(EC Treaty, Arts 34, 36 and 130r(2) (now, after amendment, Arts 29 EC, 30 EC and 174(2) EC))

2. Competition - Public undertakings - Undertakings on which Member States confer special or exclusive rights - Service of general economic interest - Concept - Waste management - Inclusion - Conditions

(EC Treaty, Art. 90(3) (now Art. 86(3) EC))

3. Competition - Public undertakings and undertakings on which Member States confer special or exclusive rights - Introduction of a local system providing for a limited number of undertakings specially chosen to treat non-hazardous building waste produced in the area concerned and destined for recovery - Whether permissible

(EC Treaty, Arts 86 and 90 (now Arts 82 EC and 86 EC))

4. Environment - Waste - Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, and Regulation No 259/93 - Obligation on Member States to enter into contracts with all undertakings authorised to receive and recover non-environmentally-hazardous building waste - Absence

(Council Regulation No 259/93; Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, Art. 10)

5. Environment - Waste - Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156 - Power of a Member State to prohibit transport operations inconsistent with its management plan - Conditions - Obligation to communicate the measures concerned to the Commission - Failure to fulfil that obligation - Possibility for individuals to rely on the relevant provision - None

(Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive 91/156, Art. 7(3))

Summary

1. Article 34 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 29 EC) prohibits a system for the collection and receipt of non-hazardous building waste destined for recovery, under which a limited number of undertakings are authorised to process the waste produced in a municipality, if that system constitutes, in law or in fact, an obstacle to exports in that it does not allow producers of waste to export it, in particular through intermediaries. Such an obstacle cannot be justified on the basis of Article 36 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 30 EC) or in the interests of environmental protection, in particular by application of the principle referred to in Article 130r(2) of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 174(2) EC) that damage should as a priority be rectified at source, in the absence of any indication of danger to the health or life of humans, animals or plants or danger to the environment.

( see para. 51, operative part 1 )

2. The management of particular waste may properly be considered to be capable of forming the subject of a service of general economic interest, particularly where the service is designed to deal with an environmental problem.

( see para. 75 )

3. Article 90 of the Treaty (now Article 86 EC), read in conjunction with Article 86 of the Treaty (now Article 82 EC), does not preclude the establishment of a local system under which, in order to resolve an environmental problem resulting from the absence of processing capacity for non-hazardous building waste destined for recovery, a limited number of specially selected undertakings may process such waste in the area concerned, thus making it possible to ensure a sufficiently large flow of such waste to those undertakings, and excludes other undertakings from processing that waste, even though they are qualified to do so.

( see para. 83, operative part 2 )

4. Neither Directive 75/442 on waste, as amended by Directive 91/156, nor Regulation No 259/93 on the supervision and monitoring of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community requires that Member States conclude contracts with all the undertakings authorised, within the meaning of Article 10 of that directive, to receive and recover environmentally non-hazardous building waste.

( see para. 88, operative part 3 )

5. Article 7(3) of Directive 75/442 on waste, as amended by Directive 91/156, which authorises Member States to take the measures necessary to prevent movements of waste which are not in accordance with their waste management plans, must be interpreted as meaning that it allows a Member State to take measures in relation to the shipment of waste, including measures which prohibit the shipment of non-hazardous building waste destined for recovery, if the shipment is not in accordance with its waste management plan, on condition that that plan is compatible with the rules of the Treaty and of that directive.

Furthermore, that provision must be interpreted as meaning that it does not confer on individuals any right on which they could rely before the national courts for the purpose of challenging a measure designed to prevent movements of waste which are not in accordance with a waste management plan, on the ground that that measure has not been communicated to the Commission in accordance with that provision.

( see paras 95 and 102 and operative part 4-5 )