Planned closure of complaint 2003/5127 (former complaint 2002/4562)
Date: 2003-11-12
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: North Rhine-Westphalia, airport, environmental impact, infringement of EU law, right of action

12.11.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 271/51

Planned closure of complaint 2003/5127 (former complaint 2002/4562)

(2003/C 271/10)

1. Complaint 2003/5127 (former 2002/4562) concerns the
planned conversion of
the Weeze-Laarbruch military
airport in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) into a civil
airport.

2. Several hundred copies of the complaint 2002/4562 have
been submitted to the European Commission. In order to
inform those concerned as soon as possible, while at the
same time limiting the administrative work involved, the
acknowledgement of
Commission has published the
receipt of the complaint both in the Official Journal of the
European Communities (OJ C 127, 29 May 2002) and on the
(http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/
Internet
sgl/receipt). Due
a new
to administrative
complaint number has now been attributed to this
complaint.

reasons,

3. This announcement of the intention to close the complaint
is like the acknowledgement of receipt published both in
the Official
the European Union and on the
Internet.

Journal of

4. According to the complainants, the Federal Republic of
Germany has infringed Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June
1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and
private projects on the environment (1) (‘EIA Directive’), as
amended by Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 (2)
(‘amended EIA Directive’), as the planned conversion of
the airport was approved without the prior environmental
impact assessment (‘EIA’) required by Community law.

5. The Commission has examined the facts and legal aspects
of the case. In the light of its findings, it does not intend to
institute proceedings against Germany for infringement of
the Treaty since no criteria have been found indicating that
Community law has been violated.

6. In particular,

there

appears

infringement of Directive 85/337/EEC either
original version or as amended by Directive 97/11/EC.

to be no evidence of
in its

7. The services of

that

the Commission consider

is
it
Directive 85/337/EEC in its original version that
is
applicable first because the applications for approval of
the airport were submitted before 14
the change of
i.e. before the date specified in Article 3,
March 1999,
paragraph (1)
in conjunction with paragraph (2), of
Directive 97/11/EC for the application of the amended
EIA Directive.

8. In accordance with Article 4(1) in conjunction with Annex
I-7 of the EIA Directive, the construction of airports with a
basic runway length of 2 100 metres or more must be
submitted to an EIA. Under Article 4(2), in conjunction
to
with Annex II-12 of

the Directive, modifications

(1) OJ L 175, 27.6.1985, pp. 40-48.
(2) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997, pp. 5-15.

effects on the

projects covered by Annex I which are likely to have
significant negative
are
subject to an EIA if the Member States determine this
either on the basis of an examination of
the case
concerned or on the basis of national criteria and
thresholds.

environment

9. The airport has a 2 440 m runway. Its construction would

therefore come under Annex I-7 of the Directive.

10. The German authorities assumed that the planned modifi-
cation of the airport did not come under Annex II to the
Directive and therefore did not require an EIA, since under
Article 3 of the German Act on the environmental impact
assessment (‘UVPG’), Section 13 of the Annex to Article 13
of the UVPG and Article 8(5) of the German Aviation Act
(‘LuftVG’) the plan did not include the requisite essential
changes in air traffic operations.

11. The services of the Commission do not consider these
reasons fully justified since according to the approval
that has been granted considerable construction work is
the construction of a
includes
in fact planned. This
uniform gradient of about 1,5 % across the entire width
of the runway, widening of the four existing taxiways by a
total of 2,29 ha, widening the taxiways to the standard
width of 23 m, widening the existing apron areas by a
total of 2,77 ha and establishing passenger and handling
areas. Moreover, the number of planes using the airport
will
increase considerably after the transformation, from
between 16 000 and 33 000 flight movements a year in
to application to 50 000
the last
movements a year.

four years prior

12. However, the question of whether or not the project has
to be made subject to an EIA may be left open as the
approval procedure under aviation law complies with the
requirements of the EIA Directive (cf. the Judgment of the
European Court of Justice of 11 August 1995 in Case
C-431/92, ‘Groß Krotzenburg’, ECR 1995, I-2189).

13. As required in Article 5(2), third indent of the Directive,
the application documents included various expert reports
on the expected effects of the project on the environment.
reports on noise, air quality,
These included expert
pollutant emissions and an ecological
inventory with a
landscaping plan accompanying the project.

14. In accordance with Article 3 of the Directive, the effects of
the project on human beings, fauna, flora, material assets
and cultural heritage were investigated as part of
the
approval procedure under aviation law and duly taken
into account in the final decision.

15. Also the requirements of public information in accordance
with Article 6 of the Directive and cross-border consul-
tation under Article 7 have been met.

C 271/52

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

12.11.2003

16. In light of

the above,

the Commission has found no

criteria indicative of infringement of the EIA Directive.

18. If the complainants have any observations on the above,
they may inform the Commission within one month of the
publication of the present announcement.

17. In view of the fact that there are no other indications of
the departments
the Commission should

any infringement of Community law,
responsible will propose that
close the procedure at one of its next meetings.

19. The complainants may also contact the Commission at a
later date if they have additional evidence to show that an
infringement has been committed.
In this case, a new
complaint would be registered and handled promptly.

Commission communication in the framework of the implementation of Council Directive
89/106/EEC

(2003/C 271/11)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(Publication of titles and references of European Technical Approval Guidelines (ETAG) under the Directive)

EOTA (1) Reference

Title of the ETA Guideline

Date of Applicability (2)

Date of the end of
the coexistence
period (3)

ETAG 001-6

Metal anchors for use in concrete — part 6:
Anchors
for non-structural
applications

for multiple use

1.8.2004

1.8.2006

ETAG 010

ETAG 015

Self supporting translucent roof kits

Three-dimensional nailing plates

1.8.2004

1.8.2004

1.8.2006

1.8.2007

(1) EOTA: European Organisation for Technical Approvals:

Avenue des Arts 40 Kunstlaan, B-1040 Brussels,
(www.eota.be)

tel.

(32-2) 502 69 00,

fax (32-2) 502 38 14, E-Mail:

info@eota.be

(2) Date of applicability of ETAs (issued in accordance with the relevant guideline), according to Article 4(2)(b) of Directive 89/106/EEC.
(3) The date of the end of the coexistence period is the same as the date of withdrawal of conflicting national technical specifications,
after which presumption of conformity must be based upon harmonised European specifications (harmonised standards or European
Technical Approvals).

The translations of the titles given above have been provided by EOTA and represent the official language versions given by the national
members of EOTA.

Note:

Any information concerning the availability of the standards can be obtained either from the European
standardisation organisations or from the national standardisation bodies. Any information concerning the
availability of the ETA Guidelines can be obtained either from EOTA or from its members.

Publication of
harmonised technical specifications are available in all the Community languages.

the references in the Official

the European Union does not

Journal of

imply that

the

Further harmonised technical specifications related to the Construction Products Directive have been
published in previous editions of the Official Journal of the European Union. A complete updated list can
be found on the Europa server on the Internet at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/construction/internal/specdef/speclists.htm