Case C-156/14: Order of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 6 October 2015 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato — Italy) — Tamoil Italia SpA v Ministero dell'Ambiente e delle Tutela del Territorio e del Mare Reference for a preliminary ruling — Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court — Article 191(2) TFEU — Directive 2004/35/EC — Environmental liability — National legislation under which no provision is made for the administrative authorities to require owners of polluted land who have not contributed to that pollution to carry out preventive and remedial measures, and the sole obligation imposed concerns the reimbursement of the measures undertaken by those authorities — Whether compatible with the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the precautionary principle and the principles that preventive action should be taken and that environmental damage should be rectified at source as a matter of priority
Date: 2015-10-06
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: cost of pollution, decontamination, environmental liability, national law, polluter pays principle, prevention of pollution, soil pollution








C_2016038EN.01001202.xml










1.2.2016   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 38/12





Order of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 6 October 2015 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato — Italy) — Tamoil Italia SpA v Ministero dell'Ambiente e delle Tutela del Territorio e del Mare
(Case C-156/14) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court - Article 191(2) TFEU - Directive 2004/35/EC - Environmental liability - National legislation under which no provision is made for the administrative authorities to require owners of polluted land who have not contributed to that pollution to carry out preventive and remedial measures, and the sole obligation imposed concerns the reimbursement of the measures undertaken by those authorities - Whether compatible with the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the precautionary principle and the principles that preventive action should be taken and that environmental damage should be rectified at source as a matter of priority)
(2016/C 038/16)
Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Consiglio di Stato

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Tamoil Italia SpA

Defendant: Ministero dell'Ambiente e delle Tutela del Territorio e del Mare

Intervening party: Provincia di Venezia, Comune di Venezia, Regione Veneto

Operative part of the order

Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings which, where it is impossible to identify the polluter of a plot of land or to have that person adopt remedial measures, does not permit the competent authority to require the owner of the land (who is not responsible for the pollution) to adopt preventive and remedial measures, that person being required merely to reimburse the costs relating to the measures undertaken by the competent authority within the limit of the market value of the site, determined after those measures have been carried out.


(1)  OJ C 194, 24.6.2014.