Case C-728/25: Action brought on 14 November 2025 – European Commission v French Republic
Date: 2025-11-14
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: action programme, infringement of EU law, noise level, noise pollution, noise protection, road network








C_202600163EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/163


12.1.2026






Action brought on 14 November 2025 – European Commission v French Republic


(Case C-728/25)

(C/2026/163)
Language of the case: French

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: G. Niddam, M. Owsiany-Hornung, R. Tricot, acting as Agents)

Defendant: French Republic

Form of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:






1)


declare that:






—


by failing to adopt the action plans for the major roads listed in the application; and










—


by failing to send the Commission the summaries of the action plans for those major roads;




the French Republic failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 8(2) of Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise, read in conjunction with Annex V thereto, (1) and Article 10(2) of that directive, read in conjunction with Annex VI thereto.










2)


order the French Republic to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of its action, the Commission puts forward two pleas in law.

First, the Commission considers that the French Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 8(2) of Directive 2002/49, read in conjunction with Annex V thereto.
Article 8(2) of Directive 2002/49 requires Member States to establish, by 18 July 2013 at the latest, action plans for major road networks within the meaning of Article 3(n) of that directive (that is to say, road networks which have more than three million vehicle passages a year).
In accordance with Article 8(4) of Directive 2002/49, the action plans in question must satisfy the minimum requirements laid down in Annex V thereto.
Accordingly, given that the French Republic has not established the plans referred to in Article 8(2) of Directive 2002/49 for the major roads listed in the Commission’s application – which is not disputed by the French authorities – the Commission considers that that Member State is in breach of Article 8(2) of that directive, read in conjunction with Annex V thereto.

Secondly, the Commission considers that the French Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 10(2) of Directive 2002/49, read in conjunction with Annex VI thereto.
Article 10(2) of that directive required the French Republic to send the Commission the summaries of the action plans referred to in Annex VI within six months of the dates referred to, inter alia, in Article 8, i.e. until 18 December 2013 for the summaries of the action plans covered by Article 8(2).
However, the French authorities have not provided the summaries of those plans for the major roads listed in the Commission’s application, which, according to the Commission, constitutes a breach of Article 10(2) of Directive 2002/49, read in conjunction with Annex VI thereto.


(1)  Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise (OJ 2002 L 189, p. 12).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/163/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)